Have you been watching the hilarious new show VEEP on HBO? If you have, you may recognize Sufe as Sue, Selina’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) no nonsense assistant who seems to have it a bit more together than the rest of the VEEP’s kooky staff. Before Sufe landed the hit HBO show, she grew up in Chicago in a family of nine siblings. She began her acting training at the Los Angeles City Theatre Academy where she earned a degree in Theatre. She also went on to train at The Robey Theatre, as well as at Lee Strasberg’s Actor’s Studio. In addition to VEEP, Sufe is in development on a documentary titled New Leaves about troubled youth and the choices they make to either do the right thing or not. Coming from a large family and growing up in an urban Chicago environment, Sufe takes a personal interest in this subject matter. In her words, “When I was younger my mother encouraged my brothers and I to be creative and to pursue art in order to keep off of the streets. So now with my documentary, I want to explore influences in teens’ lives and see what motivates them to make the right choices.”
We’re also very inspired by Sufe’s history of activism in her own community. For the past five years, she has volunteered with Humanity for the Homeless and has also lent her time to mentoring teens in acting and dance through a program called Voices Unheard at Fairfax High School. She also participates in spoken word performances at the Greenway Court Theatre, part of the Greenway Art Alliance – a non-profit organization that offers visual and performing arts education for public high school students in Los Angeles.
Sufe has chosen to read “Need,” and “Recognition” from My Letter to Fear on the 24th. “Need” is a piece describing the need women have for a person to take a second look at them and really see them while “Recognition” describes the places that become a part of a woman’s soul, sheltering her dreams and fears, and holding her secrets close.
We couldn’t be more excited to have Sufe participating in our reading! Check back for our next Get to Know post in a few days!
