Tiffani Williams
I am a proud Barbadian, who is extremely passionate about telling the stories of others through the medium of acting. I have no doubt my passion chose me. Case in point: I was five years old, watching Saved by the Bell. I turned excitedly to my mother, then pivoted and walked up to the screen, pointing at Tiffani Amber Thiessen: I want to do what she’s doing. What makes the moment poignant and prescient is that my mother, a Beverly Hills 90212 addict, had named me after Tiffani Amber Thiessen, who starred in the show. She hadn’t previously shared that information with me.
The performing arts is considered a respectable profession in Barbados. My parents greeted my desire to act with joy, but warned me that the profession required endless hard work and determination: without doing and possessing them, I would be wasting my time.
So, I put pedal to the metal – yes, even at that young age – and set out to achieve my goals. I studied hard, took as many acting courses as I could in the Barbados schools I attended, and, a bit later, in Academy of Art University, where I gained my BFA in Acting. I joined the cast of as many plays, musicals, and short films as possible.
I discovered that acting helped me tap into a deeper joy than I ever could have imagined. Not only has it given me the opportunity to live in the skins of characters I would never have otherwise met, but I’ve also had the privilege of sharing those characters with appreciative audiences.
Acting has also opened other creative veins: screenwriting and songwriting, which have expanded my imagination even further, and instilled in me the confidence that I was, indeed, right in pointing my finger at my namesake and declare my intentions to follow in her footsteps.