Sheryl Denise

A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Sheryl Denise was raised by her maternal grandparents. She realized her passion for the arts very early in life; however, a painful childhood shyness kept much of her talent hidden. Although Sheryl had no formal training in dance or music, her mother began to notice her natural giftings in these areas. Singing in church and school choirs she put her energy into blending in to the sounds never wanting to bring attention to her own singing abilities (which she seemed the most shy about). Sheryl began participating in various talent shows, school showcasings, and featured television broadcasts dancing and often "making up" dances for these events throughout grade school. She seemed to have a little more confidence in dancing than singing, but all in all, performance in any direction became a passion.

The demand for Sheryl to "make up" dances grew when in high school she became a drill/dance team officer. Sheryl went on to win several dance awards in solo categories often baffling even herself because of the lack of dance training. Standing out during group dance performances afforded her many commendations as did many of the dance sequences she designed for dance/drill competitions.

It was not until Sheryl began her theatrical background a few years later that she learned that "making up" dances was a very sought after skill called "choreography." The late Rudy Eastman, noted Founder/Original Artistic Director of the renowned Jubilee Theater in Fort Worth, also saw the potential in Sheryl and staffed her as Choreographer for the theater for two years. Sheryl was introduced to Rudy by a good friend/co-group member of the singing group Clear NRG who had been in theater at the Jubilee for a couple of years. Each group member was cast in the musical production, "Back On The Corner" and Sheryl (to her surprise) received several featured roles in the play. Thus began the acting part of her still building legacy. Rudy went on to cast Sheryl in lead and featured roles in many more productions (some that she simultaneously choreographed) until a job relocation moved her family to Huntsville, Texas.

There weren't many outlets for arts in Huntsville and with a marriage, growing family, work, church and Houston over an hour away Sheryl's passion for arts was back-burner-ed. Another job relocation moved the family to Houston and soon Sheryl felt re-ignited. With a renewed interest in acting Sheryl enrolled in acting classes and eventually and at the urging of the center's Director, Sandra Zimmer, co-taught and co-directed classes there as well.

Sheryl went on to be cast as lead, in featured principles roles and as choreographer for local stage plays and musicals. She Directed a select youth ministry that evangelized through the arts. The ministry group received numerous requests locally and nationally to minister/perform Sheryl's choreographed routines and Sheryl has herself been sought after to minister in prophetic dance and praise/prophetic dance instruction. Sheryl has worked with Houston artists to choreograph routines for tours, something that reminded her of her years as member/choreographer for the group Clear NRG.

Trying something new, Sheryl began voice acting and has been featured in many media presentations and local radio spots even writing scripts for many of them. Sheryl is working towards publishing a book of poetry and a Christian-fictional novel and is also working on converting the novel to script to pursue playwright and screen-write opportunities.

Sheryl completed filming a short version of the future feature film "Hang Man." The short features Sheryl as "Detective Marlene Walters" and will be showcased at the 2008 American Black Film Festival (ABFF) in Los Angeles. Feature film production is projected for fall 2008.