Actress Alecsys Proctor-Turner\u2019s connection to South Florida runs deep. A native of South Miami-Dade, she can trace her family back to the founding of Richmond Heights, a neighborhood established for Black residents facing housing insecurity after World War II.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re generations deep. We were a part of the creation of Richmond Heights. My great-grandfather was a part of the Bahamian migration that happened,\u201d says Proctor-Turner.<\/p>\n
Founded by Pan American Airlines Capt. Frank C. Martin, the community started as 26 residential lots belonging to Black WWII veterans, and became one of the country\u2019s first planned African American communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m fortunate that I am Caribbean, but I\u2019m also fortunate because of how many generations have been here,\u201d said Proctor-Turner. \u201cI know I\u2019m my great-grandma, Mary Lynn Cambridge\u2019s, wildest dream. She used to tell me all the time, like, \u201cGirl, you gonna be on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n
Proctor-Turner found her big break as Nala, a tech-savvy Gen Z stylist assistant to main character \u2018Mavis Beaumont\u2019 played by FIU alumna Michelle Buteau in the final season of Netflix\u2019s comedy-drama \u2018Survival of the Thickest\u2019.<\/p>\n
Proctor-Turner has been preparing for this moment since she was a second grade student at Perrine Elementary. She immersed herself in all the academic arts programs within her small community, but eventually she started crisscrossing the county to get to New World School of the Arts and to participate in programs like Miami Children\u2019s Theater in Kendall, Area Stage in Coral Gables, the YoungArts campus in North Miami and small church plays at Sweet Home Missionary Baptist Church. Her dedication came with tremendous sacrifice, as she would spend hours commuting from Richmond Heights for plays.<\/p>\n
The hard work Proctor-Turner put in towards her passion did not just come from her family\u2019s legacy, but the legacy of South Dade artists who came before her. Proctor-Turner still remembers the first time she saw an actress from her community, who looked like her, on stage and gave her the confidence to pursue her dreams,<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was a senior in high school at Coral Reef. I was in elementary school and I saw her play Aida at Miami Children\u2019s Theater,\u201d said Proctor-Turner. \u201cI was like, I\u2019m doing that. This beautiful black girl\u2019s voice is so big…I think representation is the biggest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Proctor-Turner took a step out on faith and perfected her craft in Miami, she often felt herself being type-cast by other\u2019s expectations of what roles plus-size Black women should play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a comment where someone told me, \u201cOh, you\u2019re too big to be Belle, but you\u2019re too small to be Effie. So, you have to lose weight or gain weight. I heard that, and I was like, I\u2019m never going to do musical theater again. And then I got to New York and everything changed, and I was like, I\u2019m taking ownership over what\u2019s happening in my career,\u201c said Proctor-Turner.<\/p>\n
\u2018Survival of the Thickest\u2019, a show that focuses on visibility, but to Proctor-Turner, it represents a new portrayal of main characters, especially ones that look like her. Playing Nala is not only a chance to represent plus-size Black women from Miami, but builds on the show\u2019s theme that people of all body types, gender orientations, race and backgrounds can be seen in leading roles. Proctor – Turner\u2019s mission to take ownership of her career, led her to a show that defied every critique she had ever faced, and showed young people back home how far they can go.<\/p>\n
In the same way she was inspired in her community, Proctor-Turner aims to take the confidence instilled in her through her career and time on \u2018Survival of the Thickest\u2019 back to Miami and inspire others,<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s enough of us to expose the possibility to the younger generation,\u201d she said. \u201c Representation is the biggest thing right now, and we have to show that people that look like us do what we do. And that we can do it and that we\u2019re happy doing it. \u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actress Alecsys Proctor-Turner\u2019s connection to South Florida runs deep. A native of South Miami-Dade, she can trace her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-336777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}