Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
More On:
Woman Crush Wednesday
Happy hump day beautiful people! And you know what that means: it’s Woman Crush Wednesday, too. This week we’re celebrating a woman who’s literally done it all. She’s a businesswoman, a producer, an actress, a New York Times best-selling author, and our biggest crush this week. Here’s La La Anthony!
WHO’S THAT GAL: La La Anthony
WHY WE’RE CRUSHING: From an early age, Anthony took the entertainment world by storm. At fifteen, she had a job with HOT 97.5 in Georgia and was offered her own shown, Future Flavas, which she did alongside the now wildly popular rapper, Ludacris. By nineteen, she had moved onto Los Angeles’ 92.3 The Beat where she co-hosted the show, The B-Syde. And then not long after that – stay with us here – Anthony joined MTV where, without any television experience whatsoever, she became one of the network’s most popular and successful hosts, interviewing A-listers like Angelina Jolie and Will Smith.
Since then, she’s launched her own production company, Krossover Productions, made a successful name for herself in film and television, starred in an off-Broadway production, produced her own reality show alongside husband and basketball legend Carmelo Anthony, launched a cosmetic line, launched a clothing line, wrote a book, The Love Playbook, which hit #1 on numerous best seller lists, and all the while looked fabulous doing it. So, yeah, La La Anthony is bad ass in every sense of the word.
And what’s she up to now you ask? Oh, just co-starring in the best crime drama since The Wire. Anthony plays LaKeisha Grant in Starz’ hit series, Power, which returns Sunday, August 25 for its sixth and final season. Power follows the uber-wealthy NYC night club owner, James St. Patrick (Omari Hardwick) a.k.a. “Ghost,” who leads a double leads life as a drug kingpin. Anthony as LaKeisha Grant is the ride-or-die girlfriend of Ghost’s right-hand man, Tommy Egan (Joseph Sikora), and his wife, Tasha St. Patrick (Naturi Naughton).
Over the past five seasons, we’ve watched LaKeisha really come into her own and step out from the background to become a woman who’s than just someone’s girlfriend or someone’s best friend. Anthony beautifully portrays this growth and, for all the crazy action in the series, makes LaKeisha out to be a relatable character, so much so that many fans feel like they even know her, though not separating the actor from the character has definitely had some not-so-great consequences for Anthony. We couldn’t be more excited to see Anthony return to our screens this weekend. Fingers crossed that our girl makes it out of this one unscathed… we’re rooting for you LaKeisha!
WHERE YOU’VE SEEN HER BEFORE: Like we said earlier, though Anthony started in radio, her on-screen career took off after she joined the team at MTV where she eventually hosted two of their most popular shows, Direct Effect and Total Request Live. Anthony made her film debut in 2001 with the romantic comedy Two Can Play That Game. She went on to co-star in the 2012 film Think Like a Man and its 2014 sequel, both of which featured a star-studded cast, including Kevin Hart and Gabrielle Union. Her other credits include the 2013 film Baggage Claim, a brief role on CBS’ crime series Unforgettable, guest appearances on VH1’s Single Ladies, and Spike Lee’s 2015 feature film Chi-Raq. And if you haven’t seen her on your screen before – though we seriously doubt it – maybe you’re one of her 9+ million Instagram followers.
WHERE YOU’LL SEE HER AGAIN: There’s no doubt in our minds that there’s big things in store for Anthony, especially now that her six-year run with Power is coming to an end. Already, we’ve seen her briefly as Shay in the reboot of BH90210, which premiered August 7. She’s also set to star in Netflix’s upcoming festive flick, Holiday Rush. But Anthony isn’t limited to the screen, either, telling The Cut, “I’m all about breaking barriers down and showing people that you can not only be more than one thing…you can be good at more than one thing.” Okay, true… but can we just say you’re not just good, you are amazing!
