Bre-Z: My grandmother on my mom's side actually gave me that name. I was in the delivery room, crying at the top of my lungs, but they couldn’t figure out why because nothing was really wrong. [It turns out] I was cold. Once they wrapped me up and swaddled me and shut the windows, that was the end of it. My grandmother said, "Oh. She was cold!"
Glamour: What brought you to Hollywood?
Bre-Z: I grew up in Philadelphia and was raised in Wilmington, Delaware. I kind of just knew there was something just special about myself, coming from a place where people rarely make it out. I’ve seen friends and things like that…so many people pass on before we even got to the point where we wanted to pursue a career. Ever since I was in sixth grade, I knew what I wanted to do. Once I had that talk with my mom, I was into music, and she helped and filled out college applications, and I actually did everything I said I was going to do.
I started off as a barber, cutting hair for men since I was 10 years old. I was working in the shop, and that was my bread and butter throughout high school and growing up. I finally got to a place where I wanted to focus on my music, so I pulled back from cutting hair a little bit, and eventually I landed up in Atlanta because my mom had a job transfer. I was like 19, and I was there working and making so much money. It was great—but a few years after that, I got tired of it and felt like I hit a plateau in my life. I was just kind of cruising altitude.
Glamour: And then what happened?
Bre-Z: Me and a friend decided, "Fuck it. We're just going to move to L.A." So, we moved out here. I was maybe 24. I'm still a mama’s girl, and we’re very family oriented. I got here, and six or seven months later I was asked to audition for Empire. I’ve been here ever since.
Glamour: Did you have any acting or music training? Or are you self-taught?
Bre-Z: I self-taught, even as a barber. I felt like I never had the money to afford the training or all the necessary things…. I didn’t have it. I was forced to teach myself everything, even when it came to making graphics. I had to teach myself that and how to edit videos, and I’d take my own photos. I was always very artsy and in love with the art, but I couldn’t afford it. So I had to teach myself.
Glamour: Were there any actors you looked to for inspiration along the way?
Bre-Z: I was always such a fan of strong, powerful women like Angela Bassett, Queen Latifah. Now you got Kerry Washington, Taraji P. Henson. I was always a fan of that. But I don’t think I looked any further than just being a fan. Acting wasn’t anything I was pursuing. That came from God himself. You work so hard to do one thing, and then you’re like, "What? Now I’m a makeup artist?" That’s what it was. I was so in love with being a barber and the satisfaction I got from making people feel good and look good. Then you just drop me on a TV screen…so it really took for me to have a sit-down from Terrence Howard discussing the same thing you and I are, and he was like, "Best thing you can do is just be yourself. You’re very passionate, you’re very sympathetic." So every time I got a role, he would just tell me to put myself in their shoes. As simple as it sounds, it was the greatest advice he could have given me.
