I’ve worked in this industry for many years, and along the way I’ve met my share of celebrities: Spike Lee, RZA, Jennifer Hudson, A$AP Rocky, Jeffrey Wright, 50 Cent, Larenz Tate, John Singleton, and plenty more. But believe me when I tell you, I was never as excited as I was when I met Salli Richardson-Whitfield.

Who, you say?

First of all, I know you know her. Salli Richardson-Whitfield is an actress, director, and producer. She played Will Smith’s wife in I Am Legend—she gets on the helicopter with their daughter. Way back in the day she played femme fatale Angela in Keenen Ivory Wayans’ A Low Down Dirty Shame and she played Allison Blake in Eureka.

But that’s not how I first knew Salli Richardson. How I came to know her was as the lead actress in a little independent movie called How U Like Me Now. I saw the film at a screening in Detroit before I had begun my own filmmaking journey. At the time, I was studying filmmaking, trying to learn everything I could, but I hadn’t actually made a film yet. It would be another five years before I finally made the leap.

I don't even remember what How U Like Me Now was about. What I remember is Salli and the filmmaker, Darryl Roberts. He was out of Chicago, and somehow I got invited to this screening in Detroit. I remember watching the movie and then listening to the filmmakers talk about the process of making it.

For the first time, I was looking at a filmmaker who wasn't some mythical Hollywood person. He was an independent filmmaker. A Black filmmaker. A filmmaker from the Midwest. And he had actually made a movie. That mattered more than anything. I could realistically see a viable career path for myself.

I had no idea how much that experience had stayed with me until years later when I attended the American Black Film Festival (ABFF). Back then, ABFF was the Acapulco Black Film Festival, and it was one of those festivals I dreamed about attending. Money was tight, but when they announced this would be the last year in Acapulco, I knew I had to go. And it was everything I wanted it to be. I’d been to other festivals but none of them had such prestigious attendees.

I met one of my favorite filmmakers Robert Townsend and I remember meeting Roger Guenveur Smith, who was incredibly nice—and incredibly intense. I had just left a screening of a film he was in, and we talked about it for a few minutes. Then I turned around. And there was Salli Richardson.

Let me tell you...

You would have thought Denzel Washington had just entered the building. I nearly jumped out of my skin. And judging by her reaction, I think she was a little surprised by my reaction. She was with her husband, possibly boyfriend at the time, Dondré T. Whitfield. She had already acted in several films by then, but was by no means considered a "movie star".

Didn't matter to me.

I told her about seeing How U Like Me Now years earlier and how much that experience had meant to me. She smiled and said something along the lines of, “Wow, that was a long time ago.” She was incredibly gracious. She gave me a big hug, and we took a picture together.

A picture I no longer have. (Flooding in my sisters basement. Still irritated about that.) But I never forgot meeting her. Which is why I was so excited recently when I came across an article about where her career has taken her now.

Directing. And not just directing.

In 2024, Salli Richardson-Whitfield became the first Black woman nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. (We're gonna ignore the fact the first didn't happen until 2024. This post is about Salli.) And this year, she made history again by receiving two nominations in the same category, for The Gilded Age and Task. 

In the article she talks about trusting herself and not letting imposter syndrome (my words not hers) hold her back. What I identified with most was when she said, it was on her first directing job, after having worked in the industry for years as an actor, where she learned to believe in herself.

But what interested me even more was reading that she made this pivot into directing around the age of 40. That hit home for me. Because when I decided to direct Maya & Her Lover, I had also been working in the industry for years and it took me believing in myself to take the leap.

Depending on which circle you met me in, I was either a producer or a production coordinator. Nobody was calling me a director. And nobody was particularly interested in hiring me as one. So, I had a decision to make. Wait for somebody to decide I was ready? Or decide for myself?

I chose the latter. I knew I had the experience to make a high-quality, low-budget feature. Still, I had friends and colleagues telling me to wait. Wait until I had more money. Wait until I had the right cast. Wait until...blah, blah, blah. You know how that goes.

There is always another reason to wait. But I knew the time was now. More importantly, I had to trust that everything I had learned during those years working on sets and making other directors dreams come true counted for something.

So, I made the movie.

And that's something I think we don't talk about enough when we're discussing career pivots. You aren't necessarily starting over. Sometimes you're taking twenty years of experience and applying it in a new direction. There's a difference.

You may not have the title yet. That doesn't mean you don't have transferable skills.

You may have spent years producing and learned how to solve problems.

You may have been an actor and understand performance better than most first-time directors.

You may have worked in production and understand exactly how a set operates.

The question becomes whether you trust yourself enough to use everything you've learned.

Because this business requires confidence.

Sometimes you have to fake it until the confidence catches up.

Sometimes you have to give yourself the job before anyone else will.

And sometimes you have to stop waiting for somebody else to tell you you're ready.

I'm incredibly happy for Salli Richardson-Whitfield—my longtime girl crush. Whether she wins an Emmy or not, there's already something worth celebrating in having the courage to pivot mid-career, trust what you've learned, bet on yourself, and excel at something new.

That's a win in my book.

And maybe that's the lesson for the rest of us:

Don't confuse being new at something with having nothing to bring to it.

Your previous experience came with you. Now you've just got to believe you're ready to use it.

 Check out the full article HERE