My Major Influences

Before I even entered high school, I obtained a love of theater and the performing arts. I have been singing and acting since I was nine, as well as on and off dancing since three. Taking classes at a local theater really introduced me to this interest of mine. When I entered high school, an injury kept me from doing shows. But now I graduate with nine high school shows under my belt, as well as being in multiple community theater productions. Being a part of these shows made me feel a strong sense of belonging, and whether I was an ensemble or lead

Music is a passion of mine and has been for a long time (it's in my blood.) My dad played the bass guitar in a few groups, and he sings in our church's choir. His taste of music has been passed down and adopted by my brother and me.

In addition, it was the little moments during performances that nurtured my desire to become a professional musician. The endeavor of singing on stage while hesitant and shaky, and the joy after finishing. Sitting in an ensemble with my alto saxophone, and playing with fellow musicians who shared my love for music, finding that perfect harmony. Experiencing a sense of freedom as I strummed and picked my heart away on stage with my guitar.

I grew up in Washington D.C with my dad’s recording studio in the basement. Day and night, I would hear the beats of R&B and jazz surfing up through the floorboards. My parent’s were always listening to everything from Motown to John Lennon, Broadway musicals to Otis Redding. I loved it all - Etta James, Frank Sinatra, Nina Simone, The Supremes, Elvis, Billie Holiday, musicals. To this day, those musicians inspire me. The second I knew that I had to be a singer was the day I fell madly in

Ever since I was a small child, I have loved music. The strong, steady beats, the

Over the course of my life, I have had many opportunities to overcome and learn from various obstacles. I have learned how to not only identify problems, but encounter the solutions. This greatly benefited me during my time serving as a zone leader in the Cuernavaca Mexico mission. Because of this experience, I am confident speaking in public and teaching large groups of my peers. I am organized and have a grand testimony of the power of planning daily and weekly. Before my time in the mission, I dedicated much to the arts of singing and acting. I have worked hard to develop a talent, and through that talent, I have had the privelege of performing in eleven stage shows, musicals, and benefit concerts, as well as traveling with a jazz acapella

As I sat enveloped in her story of overcoming conclusions, she taught my heart to embrace each quirky part of myself. I identified with Elle Woods’ need to prove herself. This idea of accepting individuality provided me with the courage to audition for my first show, the Arvada Center’s production of Footloose. Since that first nerve-racking, nail-biting experience, I have come to find myself through each move I dance onstage. Getting my first big role, the Dragon in a production of Shrek, I poured my heart out, knowing the people ready to judge and mock were watching. After the show, the peers who judged my intelligence approached me, saying things like, “I never knew you could sing like that.” Through performing I found myself again. I shifted back to the girl I was, the girl who cared about her morals. I want to perform, hoping to provide audience members with the ability to connect with characters who can offer them a point of realization, as Elle Woods did for me.

Growing up, music has always been a passion of mine. I listened to everything and anything. I would go to jazz concerts, operas, orchestra performances, or to a rock and roll music festival. But that passion bloomed into something more as I grew older. It blossomed into wanting to learn an instrument. I got to seize that opportunity when it came time to attend middle school.

During my high school experience, I have truly embraced the arts, specifically performing arts. Tri-School Theatre (an extra-curricular, educational theatre program) has been a great opportunity where I have been able to appreciate my talents while learning about theatre with other students. Being an active leader in this program, I constantly collaborate with students for rehearsals and events; after my junior year of high school, I was nominated to be an assistant director for a children’s production, Aladdin Jr. Having much enthusiasm for the arts and promoting theatre at school, I was thrilled with this opportunity. Theatre has strengthened my self-confidence,

Iman Aaliyah was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. Early on she was attracted to the arts with a strong desire to sing, dance, and perform the many story books that lined the walls of her childhood. Though thoughts of being a professional performer had not been amongst the list of career possibilities that she envisioned for herself as an adolescent the arts has always been a love that seemed mysteriously just out of reach. It wasn’t until attending Milford Mill Academy, cast in her first play, that she officially found performing to be her passion and dream. From that moment theater and she became inseparable. Graduating with a handful shows under her belt and a Cosmetology license she decided to take a year off before diving back into

I have loved music since I was born, it has always been there for me. Although I love all genre of music my favorite has to be country music. You can interpret so much from one verse of music. From kindergarten to fourth grade I was in the school talent show singing. I loved getting on that stage and showing people what I could do.

I have evolved from singing cobbled-together carols in kindergarten class to singing collegiate repertoire at competitive adjudications with a rigorously auditioned madrigal choir, and from dancing in a weekly ballet activity at the local YMCA to the Nutcracker suite. Throughout high school, I have performed in sixteen plays and musicals. My interests are varied, but when I pursue them, I do not do so halfheartedly. I know Johns Hopkins has as strong a performing arts community as it has strong academics. I hope to be a part of it and bring my own performances and perspectives to any productions that will have me. I found a second family in the performing arts, and I want to extend it in

Fourteen years after that fateful day, when I saw that first musical, my love has grown. I have changed a great deal, but my love has not. Despite what other people say and believe, musical theatre is what I am destined to do. So I will keep pushing myself to become better. Because, no matter what, I'm determined to keep dancing and Singing in the

Throughout my childhood and teenage years, I have searched and searched for a talent that would give me a unique identity to make me stand out from my peers. When I was five years old, I was given the chance to be in a musical in our city's community theatre, PMT. This musical was "The Wizard of Oz", and I played the role of a munchkin in the Lollipop Guild. This initially sparked a great interest in theatre, and I fell in love with acting. I had an amazing mentor for my youth acting career, the late Jack Ewing. He played Harold Hill in PMT's production of "The Music Man", while I had the opportunity to play the role of Winthrop, the young boy that helps Harold Hill become a better person. (Jack later died a year before I had the chance to play the role of Harold Hill in my high school's production of "The Music Man Jr.") When I was about nine, PMT dissolved as an organization and therefore there was no community theatre around me for years, which put a setback in my interest and talent for theatre.

Since I was eleven years old, I have known that I wanted to act. It was something that my parents never particularly encouraged, nor supported, but the seed was planted. I was sixteen when I first stepped into my high school’s theatre for my first day of drama class, and it changed my life. I felt at home and I would even call it the point of my salvation. From discovering the theatre and joining the world of the performing arts, I have grown so much as a person and have found a sense of self and purpose that I didn’t have before. I could not have imagined that I would, or even could, have the immense passion for acting and theatre that I have today, and it is beyond me how I became so lucky as to find something that makes me so incredibly