04
CHA-CHA GILES
Age:33
Art:ACTRESS | MODEL | PERFORMING ARTIST
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Anzzia: You're an MC, an actress, a model, which one came first?
Cha Cha: I would say acting came first. Because I was taking classes in college. Actually, wait, let me back up. When I really think about what really came first, ever since I was a little kid I used to read a lot and I used to write a lot, in my journal. I always used to write poems and songs. I would write songs and I would have my younger sister like, be my judge. I would sing the song for her and have her on the calculator like, rate the songs from 1 to 10 on how good it was.
Anzzia: Oh, I like that!
Cha Cha: Ever since I was younger actually, I was a writer first. Because I was very shy growing up. I grew up in an inner-city neighborhood low income and I didn't sleep. I could read a book in a day. I used to read, read, read so much. Which really helped me out with my vocabulary and so then I used to write just like journaling. I spent so much time reading and writing. It was my way of acting out the things I was imaging in my mind. It was my way of expressing them. Because I was too shy to put myself out there and do any kind of performance art. Even though it is something I really wanted to do and I mean I used to get picked on a lot. Because, you know, I'm really tall. So, I was always taller than all of the guys in every class that I was in and then like I have really dark brown skin. So, I faced a lot of color-ism from my peers growing up. It only contributed to me be really, really shy and afraid to put myself out there because I was always afraid of people making fun of me. So I would shy away from what I really wanted to do which was like, be in plays and take singing lessons. I've waited to do all of that stuff until like, the past five years, really. To answer your question: what came first was writing and music came first. Because I always used to write songs ever since I was a kid.
Anzzia: When did you realize then, because you started out writing and journaling, when did you realize that you had serious music talent?
Cha Cha: I still don't even know. It sounds weird hearing me say that. I think what happened was, I was writing these songs and when I moved to D.C. I was just like, "You know what?
Photo credit: Unspoken Memories Photography