The multi-talented actress, Zuri Adele, continues to inspire the next generation on and off screen. She has had eye-opening opportunities teaching at UCLA and the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa which allowed her to acknowledge the importance of art as a form of communication. Zuri has also pioneered the Be Accessible Scholarship which provides African-American students with wellness opportunities and the Zuri Adele Fellowship which provides Historically Black University Alumni with access to prestigious Masters Programs. Keep reading to learn more about her foundations, passion for health and wellness, and how Zuri stays grounded.

Where are you based?
I am currently based in Los Angeles, California.

What inspired you to pursue acting?
I grew up in a family of performance poets, dancers, writers, actors, and educators, and loved performing and expressing with my voice and body as a means of entertainment with my loved ones as a kid. I was curious about so many professions and walks of life (I thought I wanted to be the president, a doctor, a spy, a performer, a phycologist, etc) and realized I wanted to be a leader and lifelong student and portray what I perceived to be the exciting parts of various lives on stage and screen. I love the adventure of living as many perspectives as possible and learning from the inside out while getting to express through my voice and body with a group of brilliant artists. My family is devoted to liberation via performance art, storytelling, spirituality, social justice, and education, inspiring me to stay deeply curious about how I can lend my soul’s expression to the world.

After studying theater at several universities you also had amazing opportunities to teach acting, so is there anything you learned from your experiences on the other side of the classroom?
Teaching continues to remind me to release perfectionism and strive for presence, authenticity, and excellence while highlighting the impact of community and collaboration. My teaching experiences at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa and at UCLA taught me that arts education is crucial for all citizens to effectively communicate from a place of confidence, physiological awareness, and safety, no matter what career paths we are on. Learning to incorporate playfulness, teamwork, eye contact, listening, and an understanding of physical relationships and how to nurture one’s voice are skills cherished by the globe’s most impactful leaders.

As we are all aware, a massive strike is going on in the entertainment world, so you can’t talk about any of your current acting work. Can you tell us a little bit about the strike and your thoughts on it?
I am so proud of and grateful for our unions for firmly upholding our boundaries and standards for sustainable practices, and I am so deeply blessed to be a working actor. This season is requiring enormous faith, strategy, study, trust, creativity, surrender, and tenacity within us all.

In addition to acting you are very passionate about yoga and meditation. Can you tell us about how you started your journey?
Yoga and meditation were introduced to me most consistently during my theater training at Spelman, as a tool to warm up and connect with my body and voice. They additionally became such effective and enjoyable tools for my physical and emotional well-being that I continue to practice (and lead) on my own and at studios and community centers in each place I live or travel to.

Can you tell us about the Be Accessible Scholarship and the importance of access to wellness for minorities?
I pioneered the Be Accessible Scholarship with Modo Yoga International to create opportunities for BIPOC people to train as wellness leaders and to experience safe, enjoyable, and relatable rituals and practices. As we work to increase access to healthy food, mental health services, financial literacy, medical facilities, personal hygiene, and wellness offerings to those historically underserved and underrepresented, we undoubtedly forge the path to collective liberation.

Speaking of helping minorities, you started the Zuri Adele Fellowship for Historically Black College and University Alumni at UCLA's TFT. Can you tell us a bit about your fellowship and why it was important for you to start?
The Historically Black College and University experience is incredibly empowering because it expands education beyond the teaching of Westernized textbooks, approaching each subject from the African Diasporic perspective. The strong sense of self, combined with the communities that are developed in the process are vital to strengthening the collaboration of artistic cohorts in the world's most prestigious Master of Fine Arts programs and in the working world of theater, film, television, and digital media. My HBCU experience helped shape my confidence and knowledge to prepare me for UCLA’s unique offering of training, performing, and teaching while in the working world of Hollywood, and I wanted more HBCU graduates to have access to the program, and for more MFA curriculums to forge access to the gifts, rituals, and perspectives that are uniquely shaped by the HBCU experience.

Do you feel that acting and acts of meditation, like yoga, consist of the same essence of being the master of one's mind and body?
Yes. Acting is a practice of yoga and meditation. Each is a practice of being fully present. We are surrendering the past and future, offering our beings to the power of the present moment, through the vulnerability, discomfort, and strengthening that arrive with it. Operating in purpose, with clear intentions, awareness, and surrender, we can allow the mind and body to thrive.

What are some benefits you have experienced through crystal healing and grounding through yoga that you would share with others interested in starting this journey?
These tools have helped me apply clear, tangible intentions and focal points into my self-work each day while helping provide a structure of a consistent practice of re-centering, grounding, reflection, strategizing, and surrender. Trusting and leaning into what I am drawn to and what feels good has been such a helpful, easeful, and enjoyable practice on this ever-expanding journey.

It has been a crazy past few years. How have you been staying positive?
I remember that life is a classroom, each experience is an opportunity to learn and grow, and every being is a teacher. I rest. I lean on faith, pray, pause, journal, listen to music, eat, cuddle with my poodle, laugh and talk with my loved ones (earth realm and ancestors), enjoy solitude, nature, a shower, move my body, breathe, and give thanks.

What is your motto in life?
Stay Ready.

To stay connected with Zuri Adele follow the links below:
www.zuriadele.com
Instagram: @zuriadele

Staying Grounded with Zuri Adele