When you hear these stories about different cases of police brutality, don't even just make that person just another hashtag, another statistic. That is somebody's father, brother, sister, mother - be more aware of what that means.

If you're good at your job, you're good at your job regardless of being male, female, whatever. Either you're a good director or you're not, and there are plenty of bad male directors.

It's not about opening a door and shutting it right behind you. I want to keep it open so others can come behind me.

I'm not going to sit around and wait for some old studio executive to decide my career path.

I've determined my style - I like to call it elegant funk. You'll see me in some really beautiful gowns but I'll still have my septum piercing in.

We witness so many people lose themselves in this industry, and sacrifice who they really are for success and accolades.

That is the thing that brought the Black community through so many of the hardships that we've faced historically. It's the ability to love and laugh and experience joy still in so many ways.

It's important to me that I'm more than a pretty face or another person starring in movies. That's great, but there's so much more than can and should be done.

Growing up, my favorite movie was 'The Lion King.' I used to watch it every day and create these extravagant stories with my Barbies and stuffed animals. My dad says I would say the entire movie out loud, and it's still the one VHS that I have.