val baker machado in new york.
One company looking to help put an end to the lack
of diverse hair and makeup talent on tv and movie sets,
black beauty roster providing a directory of diverse hair and makeup artists,
education talent and even advocacy for the media industry.
The company even announcing their new partnership with Warner Media,
that was the goal of creating an opportunity for diverse artists
to work on upcoming Warner Media productions.
So joining us to discuss his motto, Crook, co founder of black beauty roster mods.
Such a pleasure to have you here, Congratulations on the news.
What motivated you to enter this partnership here with warnermedia?
Thank you so much for having me um with warnermedia,
we were just really excited to be able to help a number of black
talent that really struggled on set when it came to their hair and makeup.
I think we've all seen the tweets and and with that what we saw
was that warnermedia wanted to not just talk the talk but really walk the walk
and wanted to ensure that they were bringing opportunities to
their talent as it related to hair and makeup.
And
we were excited that B B. R. Could be a solution to that.
And on top of all of that,
let's talk how you are really sort of helping um
connect people who are black indigenous and people of color
in the beauty industry with a lot of these opportunities
here because that also is a very big deal.
Yeah, I mean we saw we we know this has been a challenge for quite some time,
but we most certainly saw it especially in 2020 right in the
wake of Covid where hair and makeup business is completely shut down.
Um and also in the wake of George Floyd
wright and his murder and they became a racial reckoning
in the US around what more can we do as it relates to equity.
So what we realized is that there were a number of amazing, amazing,
talented um you know, artists, excuse me,
hair and makeup artists of color that we're
looking for these opportunities but really struggled to be
able to break into tv and film struggle to be able to break into fashion editorial.
And it's been amazing to be able to
connect those thoughts between the studios and these
underrepresented but amazingly talented hair. Hair and makeup artists.
Yeah.
Look,
some actors from Gabrielle Union Tiffany had ish have talked really about
their sort of horror stories that they've encountered while working on set.
Talk about, you know what black actors have experienced,
especially when it comes to people that don't look like them
putting their hair and makeup together here.
Yeah, it's been really triggering
if you can imagine to imagine going on set
your job is to focus on the job at hand. Right? And here you are worried about
Will this hairstylist have the right product. Will they
be able to understand my texture? Do they understand my complexion
And your peers are not worried about that.
They're worried about remembering their lines, they're worried about, you know,
going over their script.
And if we want to create an equal playing field, if we want to talk about equity,
we have to ensure that everyone has the
same opportunity to prepare and to be as confident
as possible when they go on set to do the jobs that they were hired to do,
they weren't hired to do their own hair and makeup,
which we've heard those stories happen on set.
We know Hollywood has had sort of this reckoning mod of hiring more diverse
talents of of writers, producers, directors, everybody in the production field.
But when it comes to hair and makeup, how is how is Hollywood doing here?
Are they doing a good or terrible job when it comes to people of color in this,
in this sector here?
So there is progress being made, but it's not moving as fast as we would like. Right?
So the good news to the point that you made is that
there is more diversity happening in front of the camera,
right?
We see it time and time and behind the camera there are great strides being made.
But when it comes to hair and makeup,
we're not seeing that progress and acceleration moving as fast
as we do in some industries below the line.
So what we're excited about is that there is that reckoning, right?
You see this great example with our partnership with Warnermedia and we're looking
to continue to work with more large studios and brands around this?
But it's going to take some time. But we're starting to see that progress.
We also know, especially in Hollywood, you've got to be part of these big, you know,
unions here from the director's scale to the producers guild,
Why is it so difficult for a lot of stylists of color to join a lot of these unions here?
So the unions have different standards that
require a certain amount of hours be done
on production sets in order to be able to submit for consideration into the union.
The reality is,
is that sometimes it's really difficult for artists to be able to
find those production hours because so much of the work is union
um while it is a challenge and a struggle to get into the into the the union?
One of the things that's important to remember
is that we're all part of that solution.
So to your exact point with with sag with the production guild,
all these people,
all of us play an important role as it relates to bringing a solution to the table.
And I think together
we can really help to move the needle forward for poc talent
that is struggling on set when it comes to hair and makeup.
And do you think partnerships like the one that you're having here with
Warnermedia and and if other groups
have other partnerships with other distributors,
do you think that that's going to be the thing, that sorts of that, you know,
to solve this issue here?
That you're you're more optimistic when you have a partnership
with Warnermedia that this starts to get resolved here?
Yes, because they're really large leaders within the industry, right.
I think one of the things that we have to be
mindful of is that if if you're truly a leader,
own up to it,
step up to the plate and we've seen that
happen with Warnermedia and what we recognize is that
talent just wants the same opportunity as their peers, right,
pOC talent wants the same opportunity as their peers.
And when we see large corporations assuming we see large
productions like Warnermedia taking that step in the right direction,
we can only be excited about it and continue to see these changes moving forward.
Well, congratulations either way, though,
on the success and I'm so happy that somebody is doing this here,
motto car is the co founder of black Beauty roster.
Such a pleasure to talk to you, ma, thank you so much for joining us.