After less than five months, American-Jamaican actress Sundra Oakley has returned with her workshop dubbed ‘Inside Hollywood: The Business of Being an Actor’ starting today through Sunday.

The workshop, which will be held at the AC Hotel Kingston, will feature Oscar-nominated, Golden Globe and three-time Emmy-winning actor Sterling K Brown and his wife, acclaimed actress Ryan Michelle Bathé.

“After the last one in May, I received a flood of WhatsApp messages, DMs (direct messages), that were so overwhelmingly positive that honestly took my breath away and I was showing them to some members of my team, and they said to me, ‘Don’t wait ‘til next year. Do this again before the end of the year.’ That is why it came a second time,” she told the Jamaica Observer on Thursday.

Oakley, who was born in Queens, New York, is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in French and theatre. She has acted and appeared as a dancer in numerous award-winning stage, film and television productions. These include Code Black, All American, Being Mary Jane, Legends, and
Sex and the City.

She also appeared in the recently released biopic Bob Marley: One Love.

Meanwhile, Oakley said that the execution of a second workshop was easier than the inaugural staging, partially because of her support system.

“There’s a difference between when you’re doing something from a template, versus building the template. For the one in May, I had to build the template and it nearly broke me. But, this time, I have it and I have a wonderful team of people who will help me and it has been a better ride in the sense that I have people to lock arms with,” she said.

The workshop will feature sessions on self-taping and audition techniques, among several other topics aimed at grooming aspiring actors.

As for Brown who, along with his wife, is back in Jamaica after 26 years, he looks forward to delivering impromptu advice to the workshop attendees.

“I feel blessed to be a blessing. Sundra is a beautiful human being, who has asked me to be of service to her people, and I feel like being of service to her and the people of this country means a lot. Being outside can seem so big and leave you wondering how it works and how it happens. So, to be able to dispel some of those myths and make it granular for when you get these opportunities and make it seem accessible. I’m a dude from St Louis, Missouri, who never really thought that I’d be where I am in my career right now, but I’m there, and there are certain actionable steps that you can take to get it,” he said.

Brown has played leading roles in films including Hotel Artemis, Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul and Biosphere as well as supporting roles in Marshall, Black Panther and Waves. He has voiced roles in the 2019 animated films The Angry Birds Movie 2 and
Frozen II.

Ryan Michelle Bathé, who is thrilled to be back in Jamaica for the workshop, as well as for the food, said that she anticipates sharing all that she knows over the next three days.

“It’s an honour to be able to impart something. There are so many changes in the industry, and so many people who still have the heart and soul to want to do this with drive and dream. It’s not an old dream; it’s a dream that’s still on people’s hearts, and to be able to, in any way, facilitate that means a great deal,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

She has starred in the ABC legal drama series Boston Legal (2005–06), BET+ comedy-drama series First Wives Club (2019–22), and the NBC crime thriller The Endgame (2022).