MAURA GALYE Here's her story on how she made it... Q How long have you been acting? A: Since 1983 I went to college for broadcasting and someone found out I could sing and asked me to audition for a play.  I had never taken an acting class in my life, because I could sing and they were short of blacks; my school had 25,000 people but only 5,000 blacks. I went in and acting was like breathing. The director not only gave me the role, but also invited me to an invitation only class, that was full of junior and seniors. I was a freshman at the time and he still let me take the class, and I’ve been acting ever since. I did not know I was good at it, but it was just like waking up in the morning and inhaling. Q: How did you get started? A: This play called “Little Shop of Horror,” and we had to sing, act, and dance, that was at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois in 1983. Q: What steps did you take to get acting jobs? A: While in college I did television, radio, and lots of school plays.  Then when I graduated college I moved to Atlanta and worked for CNN Headline News. I still was doing a little community theater there, did “Little Shop of Horror” again and lots of other shows. I resigned from CNN 1990 and acted full-time, had agents and started doing television and film. My first real film role was a project called “Babies Coming Home” I was casted as lead actress and I had to do a love seen, no nudity but a love seen.  I wanted to be lean for my first film, so I hired a personal trainer and I trained for three months. I went from 185 to 125 pounds by the time I walked into the set the director said oh my God is she sick and I told her I hired a trainer and that was the beginning of my career.  Once I had lost the weight I ended up landing a television pilot and then I did commercials.  It literally caused my career to go from this is what I kind of want to do, to I am doing it, making a good living at it, and was in position to look at Real Estate and Investments. Q:  You have a play Stem? A: I produced a gospel stage play Stem; a woman’s journey to God.  It’s real, it’s raw, it’s righteous, and it’s true testimonies.  The beginning phase is our childhood phases of neglect, disappointments, challenges, or childhood trails.  The middle phase is the rebellions state of which you turn your back on God, be it premeditated fornication, to abortion, to adultery, to eating disorders.  The Last phase of the play is the miraculous hand of God, where it shows you in a supernatural way that He’s with you.  For one young lady, she was healed of breast cancer; another young lady, she was contemplating suicide but has been healed, delivered, and set free. Q: Tell me about your publication Anointed Agenda? A: Anointed Agenda she’s six years old, it’s in 26 states and 2 countries. This year we’re working on international distribution across the board.  When I get a deal with Target, Wallmart, or an international distributor the minimal order are about 1,000,000 planners. Right now I sell around 5,000 a year out the back of my trunk as well as several of the stores, and churches across the country.cross the country. Q: What is you most recent success? A: My most recent success is my movie that’s coming out “Their Eyes Were Watching God” starting Halle Barry, it’s produced by Oprah Winfrey and it will be shown on ABC. Q: Who’s been your inspiration? A: My inspiration comes from a lot of places and a lot of people. I could look at Oprah Winfrey and see how successful she is and she’s definitely has inspired me from afar.  My mom being a single mother raising six kids and all of us going on to have professional careers.  I would have to say God’s word has been my biggest inspiration. I grew up in such a negative environment in a dysfunctional family.  I’ve been through so much from rape, premeditated fornication, abortion, and divorce.  When you go through those kinds of things you don’t see yourself pretty, you don’t see a positive image, you don’t’ see anything good.  But God’s word counts me valet, counts me valuable.  A person on this earth that has really inspired me I call mom in love, her name is Millie Culver, she encourage me when I’m getting a little distracted, she supports and believe in me and she’s my number one fan.orts and believe in me and she’s my number one fan. Q: What would you say to teen girls looking for the road to success? A: To never give up.  I believe in order to achieve whatever it is you are suppose to receive you go for it with what I call lazor beam focus.  See a lazar doesn’t sometimes hit its mark, it always hit its target, a lazar is precise, it deliberate, it’s intentional, and a lazar is purposeful.  They have to take practical steps, if they want to pursue acting, modeling, recording, or writing they have to take practical steps. Be it finding out how other people got started.  If it’s acting, they need headshots, then they need to try to find an agent, they need to find an actor’s book, so they can pursue agencies.  If it’s modeling they need to get pictures done, they need to search out the best of photographers, so they can go to agents to find out which photographers are hot, or which types of photos read better.  Take the money, time, energy, effort and you put it into something that would reap you some benefits for the rest of your life.  Then you’ll be prepared to bring purpose into your craft.