Javicia Leslie

thumb Javicia Leslie (born May 30, 1987) is an American actress. Quotes I just realized a lot of people were still trying to find themselves in this industry. I never had to find pride in my Blackness. It was always around me. It’s part of my fiber. With everything going on in the world, and after losing family members recently, I just want to go day by day. there are so many moments where you’ll watch and think, I know exactly how that feels. And by the end, there’s a redemption that makes you feel seen. And as time has gone on, I’ve started to feel it in myself too. Sometimes people see you before you see you, and then you grow into that. I think maybe the casting saw it in me before I saw it in myself, ‘I Never Had To Find Pride In My Blackness’—‘High Potential’ Star Javicia Leslie Talks HBCUs, Imposter Syndrome & Fiancée Life;By Samjah Iman on March 16, 2026 I mean, I’ve always been acting. I just was doing it more on the East Coast. After I graduated from Hampton University, I moved back to Maryland-DC area for like a year and a half working for the government. Then, one day I just decided, it was in 2012, I decided to just pack up all my stuff and go to California and pursue acting full-time. I auditioned during pilot season, which typically takes place in February and March of every year. Pilot season is when actors start to audition for new shows that are going to get tested. It doesn’t mean that they’re automatically picked up, it just means that the new shows are going to be shot and tested. Then, if they do pass, they’ll get picked up and they should air in the fall. Then from there, they brought it down to me and one other person. And that’s when we tested in front of the actual network. Once we got chosen, then we all came to New York in March and shot the pilot episode. It took about a month to shoot the pilot episode. Then after we shot the pilot episode we all went back to our regular lives and the team edited and sent off the pilot episode to be tested in front of a sample audience. No, not really. I think because it’s pilot season anyway, so, I was still auditioning for other things. At the time that all of this was happening in 2018, I had been in LA for six years. This might’ve been like my third or fourth pilot season. I know there are actors have been out there way longer than me who, it might’ve been their 15th pilot season and still haven’t booked a show. So, you don’t really think too much about it. You give it your best and you keep it moving. I don’t hold my breath about things because I know how this industry works, and I know that there’s nothing I can do. A lot of times it was really out of my hands. Once I’ve done the best I can do, it could be something as simple as how the cast members and I match up in size, how the cast members and I match up in looks, do we actually look related? Does my energy give off the same energy of the rest of the cast that they’ve already cast? So, it’s more so about that. Once you kind of let all of that go, you just do your best and you walk away. So my first year, I didn’t feel that way. There was a lot of anxiety because I had been in LA for six years. So, I had a family there and I had a comfort zone there and I have friends there. You know, at the time, especially last year before I started filming Family Business, as well, when I was filming God Friended Me, the series itself was really just following the guest stars. So, the only people that were working a lot were our first three people. Interview: Javicia Leslie Talks ‘God Friended Me’, Moving to L.A. and Self-Tape Auditions;By Lance Carter on December 12, 2019 External links Category:Actresses from the United States Category:Living people Category:1987 births Category:Women born in the 1980s Category:African Americans Category:Bisexual people