Paige Audrey-Marie Hurd has always had the spotlight on her. The former child actress, now 30, still enjoys a thriving career 23 years after her first appearance on “Felicity.” Fresh off the latest season of “Power Book II: Ghost” Hurd stopped by rolling out to discuss her 20-year-plus career, her mental well-being and faith.
What has it been like dealing with fame for most of your life?
That’s so funny. I don’t consider myself famous at all, but I do realize that I don’t have, I guess, the most normal life. But a lot of it is normal. I always just say, “I feel like I lived a Hannah Montana life because I did have a lot of normal moments.”
I went to public school up until about ninth grade when I was home-schooled, and that was only because my teachers kept trying to fail me because I was away filming “Everybody Hates Chris.”
My drama teacher failed me like, “Girl, get a grip.” Drama, and then P.E. [were problems] but I’m like, “Girl. I can’t be here to run a mile, I’m working. … When I started home school, I would take the Metro bus to school, and I was filming a huge show at that moment. So my mom kept me pretty humble. I’m one of five kids, but I had the other side where I was in the industry.
I went to work all day and came home to unload the dishwasher, do chores, and help out my brothers and sisters, so I feel like I had a very balanced life.
There are things I feel like I didn’t get to experience, I missed out on, and that’s been challenging. Through therapy, though, I work through those things and find out, “What exactly did I miss in there? Is there anything I should work through?” Just so I can have a very healthy adult life.
What role does faith play in your life?
I mean, it’s huge to me. It keeps me grounded and humbled, and it also just reminds me that there’s a bigger purpose than what we are here doing. We can really get lost in our success and our fame, and a lot of times we feel like this is all our doing, and we don’t realize how blessed and chosen we are as people to be in the position that we’re in.
— Paige Audrey-Marie Hurd (@PAMH) May 2, 2021
In 2021, you experienced a traumatic loss with DMX’s death. How have you been holding up emotionally since then?
I am okay. I’m just getting through it. I’m working through it. I think now, I have been grieving, but I don’t know if I have been grieving. If that makes sense, so, I’ve just been figuring it out.
