Thara Natalie Prashad is a quarter Irish, a quarter Black, and half Guyanese Indian.

She’s also 100% talent.

Chances are you’ve seen her before—in music videos (like Jay-Z’s Excuse Me Miss, or Sean Paul’s Ever Blazin’), and magazines (she’s starred in national ad campaigns for Reebok, MTV, Verizon).

Soaps fans might recognize her from One Life to Live (where she played Carie), or Guiding Light (she was Summer).

But now, she’s about to shine–as a recording artist in her own right.

And I think it’s about time.

You grew up in Jersey, right?

Yes, I was born in Jersey and I grew up here, 20 minutes out of the City.

Was it diverse?

Not at all. I was the only one, the only girl of color in my school through 8th grade. And then in high school there were four of us. That was it.

Basically my whole life was about proving that I could do it, even though I wasn’t like everybody else. My hair was curly, everybody else’s was straight—I used to straighten it. Everyone had blonde hair, I had black hair. You know, it wasn’t until senior year that I really came into my own, came into an understanding of who I was and was OK with the fact that my hair was curly, and was OK with the fact that my house smelled like curry sometimes.

When did you start singing?

At age two! I couldn’t even walk, but I could play the piano. That was something that was really important to my mom—that I learn the piano.

When did performing stop being a hobby, and start being something you wanted to pursue professionally?

Well, I started at Fordham as a pre-med, bio major with a minor in theater. But I wasn’t happy. So I kind of started doing stuff, and seeing where it was going to take me, and then I got my first production deal with Orange Factory. We started producing my demo, and doing all that stuff, and it just got to be too much. I was kind of doing school, and kind of pursuing music until I said, ‘I need to be giving 100%.’ So I did.’

And let me guess, your parents were thrilled…

(Laughs) My parents freaked out. I wrote them a four-paged letter. I wrote it because I’m an extremely emotional person. I knew that if I tried to talk to them, I wouldn’t be able to express myself clearly. I literally stood in front of them, just reading this letter, tears falling down my face. But it was out there, you know?

For more, including information on how to buy her album, visit Thara Online.

*Photo thank yous go to Thara, J-Remy (The Orange Factory), and Nidhish Varughese for Jack Move Inc.

*Listen to Thara’s duet with John Legend here.

Written by Hilal

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 09:41 and is filed under Cherez Picked, DC Exclusive, Five-Minute Interview. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.