If there’s one thing you can count on from Jasmin Brown, it’s the fact that she will light up any room she walks into. The true definition of a multi-hyphenate, the Florida native is best known for her out-of-this-world personality, gorgeous natural beauty, standout acting roles, and hilarious sense of humor.
Boasting 1.3 million followers on Instagram alone, Jazzy describes herself as “an actress, a stand up comedian, a writer. A bomb ass daughter, a bomb ass girlfriend, a bomb ass friend. An overall unapologetically living human being.”
Growing up always dressing up and getting into character, it wasn’t long before Jazzy’s alter ego Toya Turnup was born. In fact, she recently wrapped up a successful stand up comedy tour across the United States, with fans coming out each stop to support Jazzy in person.
On the acting tip, Jazzy recently played the role of Deja in BET’s hit show ZATIMA, which recently went linear after streaming on BET+. She also acted in Sistas, which was the show that ZATIMA spun off from.
SHEEN spoke with Jasmin Brown about her roots on the East Coast, how she got her start, the birth of Toya Turnup, her recent tour, favorite beauty products, Trina reposting her, goals, and more!
What part of Florida are you from?
West Palm, but I lived my ratchet adult life in Miami. I’m a Florida girl, West Palm Beach at heart.
I heard Miami girls have the most fun.
Listen, I don’t know what they’d be doing because I’m not outside like that no more. But when I was back sliding and I was in these Miami streets, 1000%. Never a dull moment.
How did you get into what you’re doing now? Did you always want to be this lit social media personality/comedian?
Oh my gosh, no. It was never that. Honestly, I was so against social media when it first came about. Twitter was one of the first things. I’m like, I’m not getting on Twitter. Everybody’s on Twitter. I really honed in on my craft at an early age, whether it was playing dress up and feeding that desire to act. I was doing Chitlin’ Circuit plays, plays at the church. I was performing for my family on Christmas. I’ve always been a character. It wasn’t until I got older and I could afford to take my own acting classes until that side of me really got discovered.
Because before that, my parents couldn’t afford that. My parents are foreign, they’re like “you need money for what? An actress? Look, we got a church play coming up!” Mom no, I’m trying to break out of that. It really started from that dream. As a young girl, wanted to act and audition, audition. Living in Miami at the time, you don’t get cast for big roles. It was always the girl at the beach or someone in the background. I was at a background actor for so many years before I before I even got to do anything in front of the camera for real. But I was the best extra.
What’s your background? What are your parents?
My mom is from St. Vincent, by way of Trinidad. My dad is from Jamaica. They’re crazy too.
What was your first big acting gig?
Oh my gosh, you know what’s funny? True story. When I was living in Miami, I was auditioning and still taking classes, I had a real hardcore acting coach who really taught us humility early on in her class. That’s the one thing she really didn’t play about. I remember there was a show called Ballers on HBO. The Rock was in there, he was the agent. Ballers was casting in Miami because it was filming in Miami, so they wanted people who were in Miami. I remember because I’d been auditioning for a while. Sometimes the casting director would reach out and say “hey, we got this part. I think Jazz would be great for it.”
They reached out like, “Oh, we have this part for you.” Literally, the girl didn’t even have no name. It was the first episode. Denzel Washington’s son, John David Washington, was one of the stars on the show. He was having sex with a girl in the bathroom. One of the first scenes on there, they wanted me to do that. I told my agent: listen, I’m working too hard to be the no name girl getting bussed down in a public bathroom at the club. They’re like, “Well Jazz, this is a big opportunity. This is going to be on HBO.” I said no, I’m not doing that. They’re like, “you’re really going to turn down an offer that already came through from this casting director?” Yes, because I’m not working as hard to be that person.
Somebody did it! It’s funny. It’s funny when I watched it, we didn’t even see her face. We just see this: [ponytail bouncing]. I’m happy that I’ve always been about integrity and I stood on that.
There’s another project, a show called Black Jesus. I got a role in that. I said no, I feel like it’s blasphemy because y’all got Jesus doing a bunch of wild stuff. I can’t be a part of that. They’re like, “you’re not in a position to turn down roles.” Integrity. It’s not that I wasn’t getting offers and jobs, or I thought I was too good. I always want things to be integrity over everything.
Your alter ego Toya Turnup is beyond hilarious. Were you always this funny?
Thank you, I guess so. It’s the personality. I don’t think I’m funny. I know I make people laugh. People always thought it was funny, but I never thought I was funny. So when people laugh at me, I’ll be like what’s so funny? Toya was created way back in the day, from growing up in South Florida. I lived in the hood, my dad bought a fixer upper house. But we still was in the hood, even though we had pavers and Rottweilers, a fence and fresh cut grass, all that. I was still right in the mix. I remember being outside and I’d watch all the girls, they were Toya’s where I grew up.
This is home of the CityGirls, Trina. These are the women I’m seeing at 6 years old. Seeing how they’d talk and walk, what they’d wear. I remember being young and studying them. It wasn’t until I got older where I started saving up my allowance money to buy wigs and get into character. I didn’t really know what I was doing. I just know I liked being able to get in character, change my body language and change my voice. After a while, I put her on YouTube and it went off from there.
Talk about wrapping up your stand up comedy tour, because anyone that does stand up knows it’s not easy at all. It takes a lot of balls to get up there and entertain.
Once I started touring as Toya, I was booked nonstop. I remember I took a long break from stand up, because I’ve been focusing on my film career. Okay, let me put a tour together while I have a couple of months off from work. I wanted to go to a couple of my favorite cities before we started filming again. I didn’t get to go to every city I wanted to, because I missed out on Houston and Dallas. Within that timeframe, they didn’t really have any availability for me to get in there.
Honestly, it was great. I know you said it takes a lot of balls, and it is hard, but I have the best fans in the world. I’ve had the luxury of performing in front of my own people. The people that come and buy my tickets are the ones that want to see me, are the ones that have been supporting me. It’s a luxury to be able to perform in front of the people that really really love you. When you go out there and they’re screaming my name, it’s insane. It’s crazy, because I’m still that small town girl that’s like wait what? You’re screaming for me, why? Don’t scream!
It was a lot, but it was beautiful. Because even after all these years and taking some time from standup, going back into it, the love was still there. It was very beautiful.
Do you get nervous before you hit the stage?
Absolutely, I’m shitting myself. I need a shot! You want something to eat? I can’t eat. I don’t eat, I’m trying to figure out what I’m gonna say. Because a lot of what I do is improv too. I have my set, but there’s times where I get up there and I absolutely forget everything. That happened on this tour. [laughs] I still get nervous. Anything you don’t continuously work at and continuously work on, you might have a couple of slip ups. Which I definitely did on this last tour.
What are your go-to beauty products?
It depends what I’m going through at that time. I love to look glowy and dewy. Oh my gosh, I rotate so many things. I love a good mask. I really love that Australian Pink Clay mask. In this bathroom, it’s looking like CVS. I have everything. Glow Recipe has a really dope glowy juicy watermelon serum that I like.
But SPF, I’m a real big SPF girl. I really love Cay Skin, which is my girl Winnie Harlow. She has a bomb SPF and it’s brown, so it makes you look golden. I really love her, that’s me supporting black business. I really love Supergoop! Those are my top 2 SPFs. I’m a SPF girl over everything. My lip gloss is Stila Beauty. They have a lip oil with sparkles in it, I literally got it from Ulta a week ago.
Obviously, you have a big social media following. How did you build your following? Did you go viral, or was it consistency?
Consistency. You just gotta do it. Whether it’s 3 people, your mom, your grandma, and your are all in there clapping for you. Sometimes, that’s your audience until it continues to grow. Just consistency, then I started to go viral from a couple of people. People were reposting me a lot who were really big. I remember Trina, she made one of my videos go viral viral. That’s the one that really kicked it off. It was so cool because I grew up listening to Trina. Another Florida chick to shout out somebody else from Florida and that video went crazy, it was really cool.
What were you doing in the video?
I was in the car ranting. The video was about if I date you and we don’t work out, but I made you the man that you are for the next one, she needs to give me a thank you card. Every birthday, she needs to send me a gift, because I made him for you. He wasn’t even thinking like that, he wasn’t even doing just because I did that. That’s the premise of the video., but the girls were going crazy. They say you either make somebody better for the next person, or you make them worse. I’d like to say I’ve made everybody better. That’s what it’s about, the girls went crazy.
You post a lot of motivational and positive content. Why is it important for you to use your platform for the greater good?
Thank you. People think when you’re on social media, or you’re a public figure or influencer, you don’t be going through stuff. I had an anxiety attack this morning. I still have my stuff. It’s really important for you to really be who you are, really be real and own that. You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to always have a good day. I did not have a good day today. But hey, I’m here with you. Smiling, shooting the shit.
You wouldn’t know that, but I’m not ashamed of saying that either. I don’t try to hide my insecurities, or things that make me sad. Being a real person, it makes you more relatable because more people feel like that, than they do happy. I’d love for everybody to be happy, but it’s not really like that. Mental health is real. There’s people struggling right now. They feel seen when people that they look up to shed light on things that they’re going through as well, that other people can relate to. It’s always important for you to always be real, that way the people who look up to you feel seen.
I never see half of these people that really rock with me like that, unless y’all come to a show. It’s important for me to be a real person, so you don’t feel like I’m any better than you, because I don’t think I’m better than nobody.
What are you most excited for?
The most exciting thing I have going on, I can’t talk about. Stay tuned, it’s hurting me to not be able to say because it’s so cool. Also, I’ll be in LA working the BET Awards. BET is doing this new activation called House of BET, a two-day event. It’s going to be panel discussions, all types of activations going on. I’m hosting that for two days, leading up to the BET Awards. I’m also filming Season 5 of DOUBLE CROSS at the end of the month as well, So I’ll be in LA for a chunk of some time.
Do you have any goals for yourself?
I’m one of those people, I’m very selfless. I think about me last. If there’s a bunch of food, make sure y’all make sure y’all eat. I’ll have the little scraps at the end. You can still make sure you come first and still take care of people, and everything still be great. I don’t think I really found that. I’m one of those people, I’m so selfless that it really doesn’t bother me to be last. It doesn’t really doesn’t bother me. I actually like it, but it’s not really good. My biggest goal is to try to find a way to put myself first in a healthy way that doesn’t detriment my loved ones. I don’t even know what that looks like, see exactly. That’s the goal. [laughs]
Anything else you want to let the people know?
I want the people to know I love them, and I appreciate them. Thank you for always supporting me and lifting me up. Thank you for rocking with me as long as you have and stay tuned, because I have such amazing news coming up.
Photo Credits: Courtesy of Jasmin Brown
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