Celebrity Coverage
Mamoudou Athie’s next act – The Essence

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 20: Mamoudou Athie attends the New York premiere of “Kinds Of Kindness” on the Museum of Modern Art on June 20, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images)
Even though his face is already quite well-known, Mamoudou Athie is one step away from becoming a household name.
The Mauritania-born, New Carrolton, MD-raised actor has remained a fixture in high-profile projects since graduating from the Yale School of Drama in 2014. Even in case you don’t know his name yet, you’ve actually seen his work. Whether it’s as Grandmaster Flash in Netflix’s too-soon-dead hip-hop musical, as protagonist Elijah in Prentice Penny’s hit sommelier drama, as Wade Ripple in Disney’s , or as Ramsay Cole within the hit sequel.
“I’m incredibly lucky,” Athie says of his success on this field so soon after launching his acting profession. The classically trained actor, who also got his start on the William Esper Studio in Manhattan, acknowledges that his rapid rise to success was a mixture of exertions, timing and the collaborative efforts of many black actors who got here before him, breaking through established boundaries, stereotypes, industry discrimination and typecasting.
“I graduated in 2014 when the business was kind of taking off. I always think about all the actors of color who have been denied opportunities over the years, since the industry started,” he says. “A lot of people have done a lot of work so that I could have a fair chance at something. [like this]“Which is the real damage.”

The actor, who has already worked with stars like Jamie Foxx within the 2023 film, Neicy Nash and Courtney B. Vance in 2020, and Phylicia Rashad in 2020, also notes that his personal motivations pushed him to concentrate on auditioning for unconventional roles after graduating.
“The student loans were a huge motivator,” he laughs. “A lot of the roles you saw me in, I won’t say they didn’t exist, but I certainly wasn’t the first choice for a lot of those roles.”
You’ll rarely see Athi playing “type” in his roles. Unlike most young black actors starting out, he never needed to don an orange jumpsuit or stand in a police line. He didn’t play a T-shirt-wearing street drug dealer doomed to linger on the corner with few options and even less ambition. Instead, he was a very sensitive Brooklynite who found himself in barely absurd situations while attempting to deny his behavior on FXX, which earned him a Primetime Emmy nomination. He was an area alt-punk graveyard dweller who dreamed of a profession in hard rock recording in 2017. He was a gifted archivist who delved too deeply into an occult mystery long buried in lost footage in Netflix’s too-soon-canceled horror thriller, .
Athie often lands not only projects that tell queer stories, but additionally roles that aren’t necessarily written for a black man to fill. Yet he makes each character distinctly his own—to the purpose where viewers could never imagine anyone else filling those shoes.
“I want to be able to do whatever I want,” Athie said of being consistently solid in roles as people of color. “I went to all of these schools for a reason. Just like anyone else, we’ve earned the right to play things that are outside of our [perceived] life experience. And we can do it as well as or better than anyone else.”

His latest project, , is true to expectations, the most recent absurdist black comedy anthology directed by acclaimed contemporary surrealist, Yorgos Lanthimos.
“He could be a genius,” Athie says of Lanthimos, whose last film, released in 2023, earned 11 Oscar nominations and 4 wins.
“This guy is just so confident and unwavering in his vision of something,” the actor says of his excitement about working on the film. He says that despite not fully understanding the story — under no circumstances shocking given Lanthimos’ dystopian fantasy scenario, which the director famously never talks about — he was committed to growing as an actor and fully immersed himself within the exploration of the film.
“I saw this guy create something so unique and vivid and specific and full and terrifying. It just makes you excited when you see something so refreshingly unique and thoughtful.”
Athie takes on multiple roles within the film, which he says has pushed him to grow as an actor.
The film, which explores themes of control, sacrifice and desperation for acceptance, features wild plot lines and even wilder imagery – the whole lot from wound-licking to fatal self-harm and group sex – each delivered with a healthy dose of dark humor. The latter of those wild images involved Athi, demanding a level of enthusiasm for the role and trust within the director’s vision that he hadn’t tackled before.
“As an actor, you give up a lot of control from the filmmaker—your image, who you are, what you do—there’s a lot of things you don’t have control over. You want to do it with someone you can rely on,” he says. “And the scene isn’t a big deal. When I was shooting it, I was like, ‘Oh, man, what’s this going to look like?’ But then you see it and you’re like, ‘Oh, okay.’”

As he steadily took his acting to latest heights, Athie never overlooked the moment that showed him that this was the trail he would follow for the long haul.
“I did a play called when I was in my third year of graduate school, and it was really important to me,” he reveals. “It was basically about people and greed and money, and it was about humanity in a way that I found really intensely moving and deeply personal.”
“I remember going to Yale Hospital for a checkup and this lady stopped me. And the way she talked about how much art had affected her made me realize that this was a really worthwhile career.”
For Mamadou Athie, moments like this, which he has also experienced while working on projects similar to and , remind him what it’s all about.
“When you feel like there’s something that’s really at stake, that something’s really been said, that something’s really been explored about humanity, or that something can change someone’s mind about something, or open up someone’s perspective, or help someone feel better about something in their own life, you feel like it’s inevitably useful in a way that’s just so fulfilling.”
“Something about that moment made me think, ‘I can do this until I’m 80.’”
Celebrity Coverage
Black celebrity couples steal the spotlight light in 2025 grammys

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for the Recording Academy
It’s Grammys Night! Or higher, make this date.
The whole group of individuals appeared on the biggest night of music, and just a few, to our pleasure, participated in rewards with their significant second. At least enough people to fill the gallery, right?
There was certainly one of the primary pairs of music: Beyoncé and Jay-Z. The rapper and tycoon was there, with the daughter of Blue Ivy, to cheerfully support Mrs. Carter when she celebrated which means triumph. Of course, they didn’t walk on the red carpet, but all the eyes were still on pairs.

There was also Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz, dressed in a black look coordinating. As usual, they looked very in love when he went down the red carpet. They were also joined by their sons and mother Keys. There was also a grammy nominee to the Grammy The Baylor Project, her husband and wife Marcus and Jean Baylor (the latter singing Zhané duo).
There were also pairs of reality stars, including Serena Page and Beau Kordell Beckham, in addition to Jan Craig and Kenny Rodriguez. There were also classic couples, comparable to actor Morris Cheszan and wife Pam, in addition to latest favorite, including food critic Keith Lee and his wife Ronni.
But you’ll be able to check all the Gołki that hit the red carpet for Grammy, starting a month about love, anticipating down below. The event is understood for distributing turntables, nevertheless it also looks like a spot of affair.
Celebrity Coverage
Watch: Viola Davis, Marsa Martin and Anthony Anderson Gwiazda in the exciting new film “G20” – Essence

Viola Davis in “G20”. Photo: Ilze Kitshoff/Prime Video
Viola Davis returned and able to dominate the screen – this time as the president of the United States. The awarded Powerhouse Academy runs the upcoming thriller, and if the newly released trailer is any clue, it brings warm like never before.
The director of Patricia Riggen, follows the US president Taylor Sutton when he fights for the protection of world leaders-and her family-when a terrorist attack at a high rate develops at a worldwide peak in Cape Town. An intensive preview teases the explosive motion, burning nails and the fearless performance of Davis, which proves that it’s greater than able to enter the role of the chief commander.
Supported by the Star Supporting solid, including Anthony Anderson, Marsa Martin, Ramón Rodríguez, Antony Starr, Douglas Hodge, Elizabeth Marvel, Sabrina Impacciatore and Clark Gregg, is formed to be a political Thffiller.
The film was written by Caitlin Parrish, Eric Weiss, Logan Miller and Noah Miller, with Andrew Lazar, PGA, serving as a producer along with Davis and Julius Tennon for Juvee Productions.
It arrives around the world at the best video on April 10, 2025.
Celebrity Coverage
Women of the podcast “today’s conversation” breaks their silence – “it was not as it was to go” – essence

On January 21, Kita Rose reached her boiling point.
On this present day, radio personality, podcast host and content creator published 59-second video In Tiktok, he declared that she was unemployed and plans to explain to her observer 3.3 million, why in a multi -part series.
No wonder the comments flooded: the user commented.
In response, Kita wrote: “I was honest with my application diseases.”
Kita Rose team
The application kit referred to fear Today’s conversationA well-liked video podcast with media personality discussing topics in front of the audience live. According to her well -known, who worked with the podcast, she was Kita, who was considered “funny”, according to her.
Kita who has it was said openly About her challenges related to mental health, she says that it was against her armament, which ultimately caused her to overtake. There was an extended chain of events that led to her “shooting”, according to her, the founder of the podcast, Anthony’s “Ace Metaphors” Nalls, was at the center of all this.
“He is a narcissist and triangulation of narcists,” says Kita Essence. “They put people to themselves to start fires.”
The fires she talks about includes conflicts she had with two other panelists, Randi Rossario and Kittie Rose.
“He would tell me things like” Randi hates you. She is jealous of you. ”
She explained that the allegations got here from frequent one -on -one conversations, because Nalls and Kita were “friends” over their friends. “Gossip with you for many hours if you let him. So, when you do all this, your colleagues begin to hate you in an environment where it does not have to be competition. It may be a team, but now he has done it competition. ”
Rossario confirms this.
Randi Rossario page
“We all gossip,” says Rossario. One of the founders of the podcast from the moment of launching in 2019, Rossario said that the team’s environment was family. And like most families, there’s a drama.
“In this situation, no one is 100 % clean,” she said. “This is part of the foundation. From the first recording I saw people gossiping about me in the corner. I wasn’t worried about it. ”
In 2024, Rossario said that he left the route because of his illness. Around this time, she noticed that she was ignored by other friends related to the podcast, but she could not understand why. This is the case until almost a yr later, in January 2025, when she learned that she was accused of Doxing Kita Rose.
“It is claimed that in the second half of the route {2024} there was so much tension that I was not part. Kittie allegedly said Kita that I had taken her home address. ”
Kittie Rose, a well-liked relationship with Chiristian, joined the podcast during the Rossario exit.
“Nothing can be further from the truth,” said Rossario. “I don’t know where she pulled out from outside the conversation with my formal virtual assistant who was a former friend.”
Essence contacted Kittie Rose to comment, but did not answer in the publication.
Rossario shared that she had assured Kita about her lack of involvement in the incident for dozxing, and although each are actually in good relations, she regrets that some of the public conflicts Kita were removed in offline mode.
“I say as someone who considered himself an older sister in a group,” said Rossario. I regret that we could not deal with it internally as if the family should have the ability to deal with their activities. “
Because Kita published her film from January 21, he exceeded 1.9 million views. Further installments of her series of stories entitled “Who did TF work?” They caused social media feed, namely due to its allegations against Nalls, which include mental abuse, theft of payroll and sexual matters in the workplace.
After 4 years of work, Kita said that she had reached a breakthrough after she was informed that her contract would not be prolonged to the upcoming route later with today’s conversation, which, if she ended, would cause $ 203,000 to pay.
Kita said that for several weeks Nalls promised via SMS and telephone calls to send an prolonged contract. However, when she continued, he had a brand new reason why the documentation could not be sent.
“There was always something,” she said. “He said,” Yes, I’ll send you a brand new contract … This yr, you’re going to get what you would like “, blah, blah, blah. And then finally, when you like it: “Where is the contract, as? We have a month before the route. He asked me to wait one other month. And then I was told that I was invited. ”
Before Nalls was successful in creating digital content, he worked as a nurse and moon as a poet. After saving at work at work, Nalls decided to record freestyd poems in social media via live broadcast.
The next night he woke up in his first viral film. This moment aroused his interest in continuing the digital conversations live, and three years later he officially launched today’s conversation podcast.
He said that it was a gathering with people by which they may cause an authentic dialogue about what seems to be the most vital: dating and relationships.
Launched as an extension of the ACE Metaphors brand, which incorporates books, live events and viral content of relationships, today’s conversation quickly gained traction. Almost immediate success did not surprise him because he says that he “hired his friends”, so the conversations were at all times true, and the viewers attracted to it.
However, this environment in the workplace reminiscent of friends is a line that Rossario and Kita Rose were mentioned as a source of conflict, and moreover strengthened harmful rumors that adversely affected them.
Asked if he participated in rumors, Nells replied: “False.”
He also shared that he was taking steps to formally close the accusations, stating: “Now we are suing Kita Rose for defamation of character, and Randi is called a co -person.”
Nalls also stated that Kita Rose social media posts on conflicts violate the order of gagging. He said that just about all allegations lobbyed against him are unfaithful, namely the accusation that he was sleeping with other panelists.
Before the movie Kita Rose from January 21 was launched, a friend of the longtime panelist Tripp Fontaine announced He did not return to the podcast. Asked if the internal conflict of Rossario and Kita Rose referred to the departure of Fontaine, Nells said no.
“Tripp Fontaine ends with ending,” he goes to its own belt, “said Nalls Essence. He explained that the podcast has no regular co -hosts, the podcast works in the rotational talent system and insisted that they be called “panelists”.
Essence contacted Fontaine for a comment, but did not answer during the publication.
When asked about allegations of sleeping together with his colleagues, namely other panelists, Nells said: “I have never slept or had any inappropriate relationships with any of our colleagues from the cast.”
According to Nalls, Kita Rose’s allegations regarding mental use are also unfounded, and so they result from the indisputable fact that he’s not able to proceed cooperation with him. Nalls mentions the same thing about Rossario, who in his opinion did not leave the podcast and since then asked for a return.
“There was readiness for these two people (from whom we went to return),” said Essence. “There was a desire for these people to come back. They wanted to return to today’s conversation. We moved on. We decided not to transform them. So we choose a legal path to the discrepancy of gossip and accusations. It was never my goal to get online and discredit anyone. I don’t want to do that. This is not what I want to happen. But now I have to say that rumors about me rumors and rumors are categorically false. ”
He explained that his hand was forced to sue the armament of his experience of being a victim of sexual abuse against other “lies”.
Nells also shared that the allegations against him, by which Kita Rose claimed that she had not paid her wine, were false.
Both personalities went to the web to provide “influences” Nalls, releasing the sound that means an attempt to extortion Author: Kita Rose. She replied together with her own Audio conversation recording With something that’s allegedly the voice of Nalls, referring to a payment of $ 500,000 in exchange for her silence.
Kita Rose also claims that Nalls did not follow her for repayment for goods that she spent over $ 100,000 and that Nells has.
Nalls denies claims.
“We had discussions about the potentially leading X, Y and Z or potentially doing X, Y and Z” – he said. “But the narrative of everything I said that I intend to do it, which we agreed to, we always conclude contracts. And so we always ran from the first day of today’s conversation. ”
He added: “Apart from the contracts, there are things that you can do to help someone, what I did to help. Do you know what I mean? But ultimately the distortion of this is something that is a situation of financial abuse, has been grossly exaggerated to something that I do not believe that it happened. ”
What next?
Nalls confirmed that today’s conversation will start one other route. He hopes that he’s controversial for him.
“I generally hope that everyone will be successful,” said Essence. “I want everyone to find their happiness and I have no bad will to anyone, no matter what is happening in this case. It’s so awkward for me because I never want to say anything negative about any of these people. It has never been my goal. I am {speaking} because I think there is sufficient public interest to say that there must be balancing history. But it is not in my form. It was never part of my character and I wanted to be part of it. I hope I never have to do it again. “
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