As a host of her own web series, a former dancer, improv actor and project manager, Quinta Brunson, is capable of doing a lot more than her 4 feet, 11 inches may suggest.
This West Philadelphia native and Temple University student, is host of “The Rant”, a web series where she rants about her daily doings. The show started as a series on Facebook during Brunson’s sophomore year in college and became a hit.
It was recently picked up by American Dreaming Magazine, a cultural and design project that works to “inform, inspire and instruct” its audience according to the magazine’s website.
“I rant about things going on in my life. I’m just very honest, and there’s always honesty in comedy, so people find it funny,” says Brunson.
The show, which Brunson produces and edits herself, recently featured guest host, Erica Szymanski, Miss New Jersey Teen USA 2010. The two discussed natural beauty, entrepreneur, Amber Rose, and homemade beauty remedies.
“My main goal is to let people know that my guests are real people too,” says Brunson. “They’re all going to be in the public eye, one way or another, but we always develop these personas of people we see all the time, but don’t really know, so I want them [the viewers] to know that these people are real, have real feelings, real insecurities, real goals just like we do,” she explains.
A former dancer, Brunson danced with L&L Productions, until recently retiring to focus on other projects. She has acted on Temple Smash, a sketch comedy show produced by Temple University students and was involved in The Second City, an improv school based in Chicago.
“I trained there and performed with them when they came to Philadelphia,” she says. The school’s list of alumni includes actors and comedians such as Steve Carell, Tina Fey and Mike Myers.
“To me [improv] is more of a spiritual activity. To do improv you really have to be one with self,” she says. “To act on the spot, and to make people laugh on the spot, you have to be very honest with yourself.”
In addition of studying theater, Brunson has independently studied film, which sparked her interest in learning what it takes to make a film and becoming a production assistant. She was allowed to learn on a first hand basis just that after working on a Screen Actors Guild film with director Charles Dutton.
“It is one of the hardest jobs that anybody could ever do,” she declares. “You’re at the bottom of the food chain,” she jokes, “but you are an essential part.”
This January, Brunson will be uprooting and heading to Los Angeles where she will become re-involved with Second City and hopes to work as a production assistant. I’ll be taking online classes at Temple, so I can be in L.A.” she says.
It seems that her interest in film is innate, as her first childhood memory was watching Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park.
“I thought it was amazing, the technology, the puppetry, the CGI (computer-generated imagery). You couldn’t tell me that those dinosaurs weren’t real,” says Brunson.
Outside of producing The Rant, Brunson works with several local establishments such as the American Dreaming Magazine, Babylon Cartel,a fashion and music website, Music Fusion, a company that works to put together events for alternative music in Philadelphia, and is co-manager of Rapper Paris Artelli.
“I have all these things in front of me, and I’m going to take advantage of them according to what I want to do, which is help my family and eventually help this city a little bit,” says Brunson.
To check out “The Rant” visit: Americandreamingmagazine.com/blog