ACTING WITH INTENT
What is your purpose? Every human being would return a different answer to this question. Yet, it is those who strive to find purpose in all that they do that truly change the world for the better. Nikiva Dionne is intentional in all that she does, setting her apart as one whose platform is always used for the greater good. Working beyond a career that bloomed in fashion and is flourishing in film, it’s clear that this paragon’s pursuit in life is to always be better, no matter the industry.
Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, Nikiva displayed her creativity from a young age. “I always loved arts and entertainment. But it never even resonated, until I left Baltimore, that I could actually become an actress,” she recalls. “It was just never a conversation.” Throughout her childhood, she did the “theater thing” and began modeling as a teenager, which familiarized her with the fashion industry. “I coordinated the fashion shows in high school. Yes, I took drama classes. But, you know, there was never a teacher that was like, ‘You should do this.’” So she wound up at Berkeley College in Manhattan, studying fashion.
“They didn’t have dorms, but there was a building that was allocated to internships and students,” Nikiva recollects, narrating her experiences in the place where she lived, near Times Square, during her first year and a half in New York. “There was a lot of noise in the hallway one day, so I opened up the door and it’s my neighbors, who I never met—I had just moved there—and they were like, ‘Oh we’re so sorry! We’re running lines!’ And I’m like, ‘What?’ And they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m in school for theater!’ I remember shutting the door and thinking, ‘Wait I could have went to school for that?’ I had no idea. No one ever said you could go to school for that!”
That moment caused Nikiva to question her direction, but since success with fashion continued to come to her readily, she stuck with it and eventually graduated with two degrees. “New York is pretty much a place about work ethic—it’s not about who you know, they don’t really care. ‘Can you do the work?’ people would ask. So, I was able to thrive in that environment because I had always had a job since I was in the sixth grade—I’ve always worked!” Working in fashion, which is a notoriously fast-paced industry, really was the perfect fit for her. “I found success right away between school and I worked in wholesale—I did modeling for BCBG.” One opportunity led to another, and she stayed with the brand for the next four years, a move that officially launched her fashion career.
“New York definitely was that place of constant challenge.” Nikiva’s two childhood best friends from Baltimore had also moved to the Big Apple to study fashion at the same time. “It was kind of like I had my little piece of Baltimore in the middle of New York.” However, it wasn’t until she finally moved out to Los Angeles at 23 that Nikiva realized how valuable having that support system in Manhattan had been for her professional development. She had always wanted to move out to California and was eventually transferred to the West Coast to help launch a few major retail stores, turning that dream into reality.
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“I wasn’t looking for New York to do anything for me.” Nikiva had wanted to develop herself in NY, but her approach to LA was very different. She asked herself, “If I’m gonna be here, then what does this look like? What do I need from this environment?” As she still felt a strong pull to the entertainment industry, Nikiva decided to hire actors as models for the stores she was running to feed those creative cravings. “And that way they’ll have jobs,” she thought, “and I can give them flexible schedules, and that’ll be perfect!”
Yet, it was The Alchemist that solidified that career pivot from fashion to acting, setting her course straight. Nikiva landed multiple promotions in the short time she’d spent in Southern California, but she couldn’t deny that something still didn’t feel right about this trajectory. It caused her to again question why she was vying for something more in fashion. Before stepping into yet another role, she decided to take a vacation. “My family and friends thought that I was in Mexico. I wasn’t. I was in a one-bedroom apartment in North Hollywood,” she admits.
Nikiva had heard about fasting, though she’d never done it before. “A friend had bought me The Alchemist, and I had it and just never read it. So, I said, ‘You know what? No one can interrupt me!’ I knew there was something that wasn’t settled about accepting the job. Something wasn’t right, you know?” She did a water-only fast with little more than a new Bible and a notebook. “No electronics, no anything. I’m reading this book, and I’m seeing the parallels of my life,” referencing the main character Santiago, whose success in a crystal shop mirrored Nikiva’s own achievements in the fashion industry. “Maybe I keep wanting more in terms of the promotions because it’s not really what I’m supposed to do?” she wondered.
That’s when she realized: “Okay it’s kind of now or never! You’re gonna try it and bet on yourself!” She knew whatever it was that was urging her had to be bigger than herself. When Nikiva came back to work that following Monday morning, she couldn’t shake the feeling that it was time to make that change. She knew she had to walk away; she was only looking for a sign—which came in the form of her store being fully staffed, an anomaly that gave her the peace of mind to leave, knowing that all would be just fine without her. “I got up and sent an email, and I left, and I knew I couldn’t give a two-week notice because I would have been talked out of it.”
Reality hit when she pulled up to her home in North Hollywood. “I had a Lexus car lease, I had this luxury apartment, and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute…where’s the money gonna come from? You have about two months’ worth of savings!’ It was crazy.” But she had no doubt that she could make it as an actress. “It’s funny because I remember thinking one time, ‘I’m gonna be telling the story and it would be like a two-second soundbite when it was like seven years of hell,’” Nikiva recounts with an infectious laugh.
She knew a handful of actors but no one in the industry that could hire her. “What do I not need from outside?” Nikiva asked herself, knowing she needed to make an income—fast. “‘You know people,’ and I knew I could take a picture because I had modeled for so many years. I previously had commercial auditions—good or bad, I’ve done that before!” She joined Twitter and followed every casting director and commercial agent she could find. Then Nikiva picked up Self-Management for Actors, which was the first book her best friend had bought for her when she told him she wanted to act—a reference that she uses even today. It helped that she approached acting as a business, pulling from her management and analytical perspective to get noticed in a way that other aspiring actors weren’t.
Nikiva booked her first two commercials from Twitter within the first two weeks of acting and hasn’t looked back since. A common thread runs through her work—headstrong, commanding characters, much like herself, allowing her to tap into a vein of empathy that is not easily portrayed. The actress made her network television debut in the fall of 2015 as a nurse in the Season 2 premier of Jane the Virgin on the CW. A slew of impressive recurring performances followed, with her roles in the HBO hit series Insecure and CBS’s S.W.A.T. standing out notably. In fact, her character Stacy Sutton is returning for the highly anticipated final season of Insecure.
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Most recently, the actress got to play an actress on ABC’s A Million Little Things. Despite getting the script at the onset of COVID-19 shutdowns, when Nikiva’s schedule was booked out, she was immediately drawn to the character of Shanice Williamson. Sometimes with a role, “it aligns with your heart in that moment,” and this was one of those instances for Nikiva. “I was always a fan of the show. I always loved it. I love not just the story lines, but I love the humanity of the characters and how they deal with life in a very honest, loving way,” the emotions of which don’t always translate with network television. Her audition for the role of Shanice actually turned out to be her first via Zoom.
Many of Nikiva’s roles are of successful, strong women, though this is not something she actively seeks out—it’s simply inherent. She was once asked by a casting director where this strength comes from. “And I was like, ‘I didn’t know it was strength.’ It was literally just doing what you needed to do. So, it’s not like I ever equated, ‘I’m gonna play these characters.’ I’m able to identify strengths within a character, but I’m also able to identify the redemptive nature and redemptive quality that you wanna have,” she explains. “I always approach the process with looking for the relatability and the aspirational qualities in any character.”
“This wasn’t really a job for me. This is a calling. It was way bigger than me.When it’s a purpose, it’s bigger than you because it’s not about you. ”
That conviction is at her core and surrounds her person—Nikiva’s mom is a politician, her sister a sheriff, and the bonds of family are extremely important to her; as is honesty, which directly relates to her need for purpose-driven actions and good intentions. With all that she does, she first asks herself, “Does this align with my purpose?” Thus, it seems perfectly fitting that all her companies come under her aptly named Platform4APurpose corporation. Lyric Party Game, Nikiva’s app inspired from a song text game, which she made up with one of her beloved nieces, falls under the corporation, becoming the embodiment of what it means to live purposefully.
“My second oldest niece was going away to college, and this was a niece that I spoke to every day for years and then the conversation slowed.” Nikiva remembered how pivotal those college years were, “and I didn’t want to feel the distance. So, I was trying to find ways to keep us connected, and I realized that as much as I love music and song lyrics, ‘Wow, all of my nieces really do, too.’ And that just might be a familial thing. So, I would start to send voice notes to my niece when she went away to school.” The voice note would be Nikiva singing a song and her niece would send a voice note back finishing the lyrics. Sometimes, they would even text the lyrics back and forth. “She always knew it, and it was so remarkable to me! I was intentional about trying to maintain this connection with her.” It inspired Nikiva to write a bunch of lyric-based R&B song questions to play with her family who were coming in for Christmas one year—one thing led to another, the game got out on social media, and the rest is history. Well, it’s actually the Lyric Party Game app!
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“Oddly enough, and how I know that it was a God-ordained thing is that my niece—that I started sending those messages to—she passed away in 2020 at 23 years old. Now I know why I had to do it. Because creating Lyric Party Game was probably harder than acting and I never thought anything would be harder than acting. And I kept going. I hit every wall you could imagine; I mean bounced off of walls! And now, fast-forward, the game has been on the app store and Google Play for two years and it took three years in development. And now I’m like, ‘This is 100% why!’ Because the intentional moments that you create with your family, you have no idea that they might be the only thing you have left. But those memories that I have, you can’t imagine how I hold them now.”
Savoring the little moments is one of the small things each and every one of us can do—not just for ourselves but for those around us, because being present is a gift that must not be taken for granted. “If you identify and give people your truth, even the transactional relationships always mean something deeper,” imparts Nikiva, and we must allow ourselves to evolve with those moments. “I say often that I’ve always been who I’m now becoming,” she states, knowing that acting is much more than an occupation. “This wasn’t really a job for me. This is a calling. It was way bigger than me. When it’s a purpose, it’s bigger than you because it’s not about you.” Nikiva Dionne lives by example—planning ahead, embracing new directions, but always, always striving to be a better version of herself.
Features Editor Elisabeth Ross
Photographer Jamaal Murray
Hair Trevor Jackson
Makeup Andie Sleeman
Creative Director Christina Marie
