FLY GIRL TURNED ACTING COACH

JOSSIE HARRIS WANTS HBCU STUDENTS, ALUMNI TO THRIVE IN HOLLYWOOD

BY ZERLINE HUGHES SPRUILL

Now that the actor’s strike of 2023 is behind Hollywood, networks, cable, streaming platforms and big screen talent are back doing what they do best. While fans are busy deciding on what movie to watch next, or what series to download, actors have decisions to make as well: who will help them perfect their craft?

The answer: Jossie Harris, an acting coach currently based in Los Angeles. She trains actors to perfect their characters by running lines and provides constructive criticism on diction and timing. Harris has worked with actor Ahmad Nicholas Ferguson from Showtime’s “The Chi” and “Power: Book IV,” in addition to actress and comedienne Kym Whitley, who starred in “Beauty Shop,” “Boondocks,” and “Deliver Us from Eva.”

“She sees something that you don’t see,” said Whitley, a Fisk University alumna and star of Bounce TV’s “Act Your Age.” “When you have dialogue, you have rhythm, so she helps with the rhythm of the line of a scene, with her being a dancer. A lot of acting coaches can not provide that.”

Harris is, indeed, a dancer. She spent three seasons in the early- to mid-1990s on the Emmy Award-winning sketch comedy series, “In Living Color,” created by actor and filmmaker Keenan Ivory Wayans. Harris was one of the show’s Fly Girls who performed hiphop and contemporary dance routines. Additional Fly Girl members included Carrie Ann Inaba from “Dancing with the Stars,” and singer/dancer/actress, Jennifer Lopez, aka J-Lo. Harris was also a popular music video “it girl” who was highly sought after for her dance expertise and unique style. She danced in videos including Mary J. Blige’s “Real Love,” and Janet Jackson’s “That’s the Way Love Goes.” She also danced in Michael Jackson’s “Remember the Time,” and appeared in music videos alongside Bobby Brown, Heavy D, Guy and Color Me Badd, and accompanied Janet Jackson on the “Janet” tour in the mid 1990s.

“I have to give it up to Keenan because he was the master behind it all … he is such a pioneer,” said Harris. “He is the voice that I hear often. If I wasn’t on set watching, I was with the production team. The rest of the dancers would take off. He would always tell me, ‘you’re going to do great things Jossie’ because I was always there.”

From Dancer to Actor

Being around the comedians awakened something in Harris, who was 25 at the time. Watching the show’s actors like Jim Carey, Damon and Marlon Wayans, Kim Coles (who briefly attended North Carolina Central University) and David Alan Grier, led Harris to pursue an acting career. She added that witnessing the beginnings of her dance partner’s acting career also kickstarted her own.

“Jennifer (J-Lo) was from the Bronx, I was from Harlem, so we had a lot in common. Janet [Jackson] would come visit me on set like a girlfriend and I hooked her up with Janet,” said Harris. “[Lopez] booked a pilot that went for one season. That really dropped me into the whole acting thing. It took me to the next level, because it was so close to me through her. I started studying with top coaches in L.A. who would take me under their wing.”

Today, Harris is an awardwinning actress. She received the Chicago International Film Festival’s “Outstanding Performance” honor for her role in the award-winning “Mississippi Damned.” She also appeared in “Chicago Med,” “Empire,” and “Chicago PD.” While she earned accolades, she also ran into barriers.

“I had divorced the industry, taking myself off the market for acting,” said Harris. “Being a Black woman in Hollywood, and being Afro Latina is the hardest part of being in Hollywood-and being a woman period in Hollywood. We want to be able to do all different types of roles, and be able to climb the ladder as well, along with being multihyphenated where we are not just looked at as actors.”

Harris later set her sights on producing, directing and teaching other actors.

Transitioning to training actors

“Rick Edelstein was working with top Black actors. Studying underneath him, it was really life changing,” she recalled. “I started to book more as an actor. One day, he came to me and he said, ‘I’m retiring.’ I almost fainted and had a fit because I was on this journey and improving. He was like, ‘if there’s anybody who can continue my teaching, it’s you.’”

Harris began coaching in 2011, serving as her students’ trusted advisor and “third eye.” She launched the Respect for Acting Academy for adult actors and actresses, and Kids W.A.Y (Who Are You?) Acting Academy. Her portfolio includes coaching for projects like “Shooting Stars,” produced by LeBron James and directed by Chris Robinson, “The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel,” in addition to prime-time television shows, including Disney’s “Saturdays.”

Connecting with HBCU student and alumni actors, actresses

Harris is currently working with director/producer Sa’Rah Jones to train HBCU student actors. Jones, a South Carolina State University alumna, is committed to getting more Black students in front of the camera because Hollywood has increased its conversations around diversity, equity and inclusion.

“I’m excited about working with Sa’Rah because she and I have always wanted to work with students from HBCUs because those are my people,” she said. “I really love to be able to park here and be that next step as they come into the world of acting. Casting directors and agents want to know you’re trained, that you’ve gotten with somebody that knows their stuff. Training at school is very educational, and then the training they’re getting from me is more professional, which will help them get through an audition.”

Whitley said she could have benefited from a coach at Fisk, but they are not easily accessible to students.

“Acting coaches should be available in college but unfortunately, you have to seek out your own,” said Whitley, who joked that she graduated before Google existed. “I think Jossie could provide what I like to call, a second brain for actors. We pick up the choice and do it in one direction. She can open up their mind and say ‘why don’t we do it this way?’ She sees something that you don’t see.”

Harris works with Whitley to refine her “Act Your Age” character Bernadette who lives in a penthouse with two friends played by Tisha Campbell and Yvette Nicole Brown.

Another one of Harris’ clients is the 21-year-old star from “The Chi” and “Power Book IV.”

“My role is growing rapidly and becoming a big part of the show, and she is definitely part of that process,” said Ferguson who has worked with Harris for seven years. “She was constantly telling me ‘you can grow your role.’ She said, ‘no matter if they give you one line or 10 lines, always stay locked in.’ She implemented that mindset upon me and all of her other students. Miss Jossie is the best choice because she’s really for her people. Ultimately, you’re going to be around love. And that’s something that you need.”

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