Jei Samuels

"My inner most desire is to inspire." -Jei Samuels. Born on June 3,1987 to Linda Kelly and Joseph Howard Sr. in Queens, NY Jei Samuels is the middle of five children. He has always been drawn to the arts and has loved performing from an early age. He began singing and in his school choir and modeling in community based fashion shows at the age of 6. He was introduced to acting at the age of 12 when his choir teacher told him that he would be portraying Scrouge in his middle school's production of "A Christmas Carol" a week before opening night because the lead dropped out. He had not not auditioned and was not in the play until then. He learned and committed the entire musical including songs and stage directions to memory by opening night. Although he had expressed wanting to be an actor it wasn't until that moment that he truly fell in love with performing and to be a performer. He later graduated from Arts High School in Newark,NJ and received a BFA on dance from Rutgers Mason Gross School of the arts. "I believe that we are all here to improve the world. That's why I'm very passionate about portraying LGBTQ characters as well as others and why I would love to be involved in LGBTQ+ work. I want to be an example to young LGBTQ+ youth and artists that we are more than the stereotypes that are often portrayed. We can play a range of characters and we are all multifaceted. We don't have to just play characters because we identify as such personally. We also don't always have to be in roles that only express hardship and struggle, especially Bipoc members of the LGBTQ+ community. I want to do film and television because it will give me a platform to really share my talent with the world and inspire people all over this beautiful planet."