At the Landon restaurant in the trendy section of Southwest Atlanta, Demetria McKinney’s gorgeous visage glowed like soft dinner candles, as if she were aflame from within. It’s not just because McKinney, a star on “House of Payne”, is a mainstay on the top-rated sitcom in cable television history. She has many embers emitting a powerful light from her soul that she keeps stoked through her singing career, ballet, tap dancing, theater, community-based projects and an elegant clothing line.
She’ll tell you that having 16 million people watch you on “House of Payne” weekly will get you stoked up, for sure. But it’s the thrill of venturing into uncharted territories and leaving herself vulnerable – such as going on Broadway and finishing up her debut album – that keeps the currents racing through her bloodstream.
Unlike acting on TV, where McKinney can fling her personal problems aside and pour herself into character, her music leaves her partially bare – which is both scary and exciting. “Everything that I sung about is written by me. It’s actual emotions and things that I’ve dealt with in my life,” she says of songs that include ‘Stay’ and ‘Love What You Do’. “So it’s kind of like, I have this baby that I’ve been taken care of and no body’s really seen it. But once you put that baby out there, that person comes up and says ‘her shoes are cute’. But they don’t say anything about the baby. That’s the really scary part, how everyone is going to respond to it.”
McKinney’s hardly one to fold up from her fears like a lawn chair. In fact, she devotes time speaking to women and young girls about facing fears and recovering from physical abuse, as she once has. It’s helped McKinney charge uninhibited towards her dreams, such as creating her clothing line, Designs by Maria, and conquering Broadway.
“I think that theatrical experience prior [to “House of Payne”] may have helped me because in theater it’s meticulous, it’s unforgiving. They don’t have time to teach you. It is the pinnacle of acting,” she says. “Everyone feels they have to conquer that because that’s the last frontier. Everyone feels that if you can make it on Broadway, you can make it anywhere.”
With her many interests, talents and goals, look for McKinney to be a mainstay on the entertainment scene. – terry shropshire
