Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with All the Queen’s Men and Lace’s Skyh Alvester Black

Resilience and perseverance have been the cornerstones to Skyh Alvester Black’s success. As he transitioned from dance to acting, he faced many naysayers who told him it couldn’t be done, but he proved them wrong! His tenacity and grit led him to superstardom, nabbing coveted roles in projects including Hello Cupid 3.0, The Chadwick Journals, and Sistas.

This fall, he stars in not one, but two exciting new projects: All the Queen’s Men and Lace.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to chat with Skyh about his journey in the business, his two new shows, and more!

PC: How did you discover your passion for the arts?
Skyh: It had always been instilled in me. There’s a picture of me in a cast from when I broke my leg at the age of two. I was watching a Michael Jackson video on MTV and trying to dance to it on my grandmother’s kitchen tiles. I twisted my ankle and my leg broke. The doctors were scared that I had broken it above the growth plate and that I wasn’t going to grow very tall, but I’m 6’1 now. I always told my grandparents, “I want to be on TV. I want to be like Michael Jackson.” That was the beginning.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Skyh: I have two answers to this question. On a personal level, it was my grandparents. They moved from Union Springs, Alabama, a small country town, to Miami. My grandfather was a general contractor before he passed. He was one of the biggest general contractors in the state of Florida. I’ll always remember the stories about how people told him they couldn’t make it because they had married at sixteen and eighteen.

I always had persistence. Even when I was making decisions early in my career as a young Black male growing up in the rough streets of Dade County who wanted to be a ballet dancer and I had a Black male teacher telling me I couldn’t do it. Every time someone told me no, it made me push harder. When I decided to become an actor, a lot of people told me, “You’re not going to be able to make the transition from dancer to actor,” especially throughout the period when I was homeless for several years. My grandmother and my grandfather had the biggest influence on me, and they still do. When I make decisions, I jump. I always think the net will appear.

Professionally, there have been several people who have influenced me, from Debbie Allen to Beyoncé to Tyler Perry. I am always amazed to hear Tyler Perry’s story. I am actually able to witness it and to be able to work under him. It’s divine. I’ve been placed around these amazing influential and impactful people, and it’s inspired me to want more.

PC: You’ve been really open about the struggles that you faced coming up in this industry. During those more challenging times, how were you able to persevere?
Skyh: It may sound cliché to some people, but I would say God and belief. I try to be as candid as possible. It wasn’t easy. Sometimes, I was depressed. There was something in the back of my head that said, “You can’t fail. This will happen. It will happen.” We all have that inner voice sometimes, even though things look really, really dark. That’s why I’m such a big advocate for mental health. I felt like at one point, I was a slave to my ambition and a slave to my dream.

I remember praying. I said, “God, if you don’t want me to have this, take it away. Take away the want.” I have a tattoo on my neck that says “resilient,” and that’s one of the best things that I have, even though I worried that having a tattoo on my neck would prevent me from working as an actor. But it’s one of my biggest assets.

I always had a mask on, twenty-four-seven. No one ever knew how I felt on the inside, which is why I always preach that it’s okay not to feel okay every day because there are a lot of days that I didn’t feel okay. But I knew I was going to do this.

Even before this call, I was talking to my reps. I was like, “I want to do this and I’m going to do it.” I’ve always been like that. It’s the hard work, my faith, and the belief. It’s that belief, even when it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen.

PC: On the flip side, you’ve had a lot of success in your career. When you look back, is there a particular moment that stands out?
Skyh: There are two things. I got to be the lead in Michael Jackson’s posthumous video for “A Place with No Name.” That moment was paramount in my career because the video debuted in Times Square. I was like, “I’m actually doing this.” It was really cool because Michael Jackson was the person who made me want to do this from the start of my career.

The second is my struggle. I thank God every day for my struggle. It has taught me so much. It has given me so much character. It has given me a humility that I don’t otherwise think I would have possessed in the midst of success because I know what it feels like to hit rock bottom. It really rid me of any entitlement because the world owes you nothing. You have to work for it. Once you hit rock bottom and you make it out of there, you realize the world is your oyster. It makes you grateful for every step along the way. I couldn’t thank God more for those lonely nights and all the valet parking I had to do—for all the nos because the yeses are that much sweeter now.

PC: Tell us about All the Queen’s Men, your character, and what drew you to this project.
Skyh: My character is Amp. He’s the nephew of Madam (played by Eva Marcille). What I love about Amp and what drew me to the character is that Amp is a victim. He’s a victim of circumstance. He made one bad decision. He’s not a gangster or thug.

In my mind, he’s this middle-class kid. He’s a D-1 athlete who succumbed to the pressure of his elitist parents, unable to say, “This is bothering me.” As a result, he developed a drinking problem so he could cope. As a Black man, I know what it’s like to live in this community of hyper-masculinity. Vulnerability isn’t allowed. You turn to different things to get through the day.

Amp developed a drinking problem and had one bad night. He was drunk driving with his girlfriend, and they got into an accident. She ends up dying and he goes to prison for nine years. You have this kid who couldn’t figure out how to deal with his feelings. I empathize with that because when I was homeless my grandparents didn’t know.

I come from a middle-class upbringing. I grew up in the inner city of Miami. My grandparents provided for me tremendously, but I never told them because I didn’t want them to make me come home. I understand why Amp is covering things up. In the first episode, he runs to apologize to the mother of the woman he killed. That guilt resonated with me.

On a personal note, I still carry the guilt that my grandfather passed before he saw me make it. That’s the only gift he wanted. I know that’s not my fault. I know that we only have a certain amount of time on this earth. We’re still human and feeling guilty is very hard to get rid of. But I was like, “Man, I get this kid. He just wants to do better.”

PC: What do you hope audiences take away after they see the first season?
Skyh: This is a dope question because I say this all the time. We get the stigma that this is a stripper show. It’s not. It’s not just a stripper show. These are real people, and it’s a human show. It shows why people do what they do and that you shouldn’t judge anyone.

The best character in the show is Club Eden. The club serves as this incubator for all these “social misfits” to come together. But they’re family. They take care of each other. They don’t judge each other for their past or present.

I would love for people to take away that we need to have more empathy for each other.

PC: In addition to All the Queen’s Men, you also have another show out now. Is there anything you can tell us about Lace?
Skyh: Lace came out on November 4th on ALLBLK AMC. I’m excited about that because I get to play a Yale graduate lawyer that speaks five different languages. His name is Othello Charles. I love the creative team because they allowed me to keep my tattoos. That was paramount. Growing up as a minority youth, we’re not exposed to corporate America having a different look other than what society has shown us on TV.

I’m a Black man. I’m 6’1 with tattoos. A young minority may see me on TV and say, “I can be a lawyer. I don’t have to look like what I’ve been shown for years.” That representation is important. Othello speaks five languages. He comes from Brooklyn, but he’s in a world where he can literally sit in any law firm and be a partner and speak Mandarin, French, Spanish, Russian, and English. That was so great to me. It’s painting a different picture of society, inclusivity, and representation.

To keep up with Skyh, follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Photo Credit: Leigh Keily // Grooming: The Artist Red // Styling: Apuje Kalu