And you're Tierra Manny, great to have you here. Hi. Is this your first time here?

Yeah.

So the crazy thing is you walked in, you were just at the dentist.

Yes. And I'm still a little bit, you know. No. Can I have some of the fuzz? No, they just said put needles in my mouth. So weird. That freaks me out more than anything. I can handle needles everywhere else. Even just actually talking about it is giving me a little bit woozy. Um, but no, it's strange because season two of No, Orange is the New Black, your character had a little bit of dental work done. And I heard that you actually, you really liked it before.

I think what I really liked about my teeth before was um, just the terrible breath that I just, you know, had. just kidding. No, just um, I don't know, I just really like like diving in, I was like, what do you mean? You didn't brush your teeth to get into character? Yeah, that's why I wanted to. I had like several cavities. No. Um, I just felt like when when she was fully in costume. I I get transended to a place that's like, so far from me. Um, but yeah, when she got her teeth fixed, she was happy about it for sure.

You know, obviously you guys go there in a way that few shows have before. Is it a different environment on set than other things you've shot before?

Um, it's not really like an environment that was like calculatedly set for ourselves. I've been doing this a long time and it's been a hard road. But um, I just think like it's like a certain group of like spirits that came together and stars aligned and basically like our set is um a really happy place to be. You won't think we were a bunch of like, you know, prison mates. There there was like, "Shash, girls." It sounds like we're at a Jonas Brothers concert. It's like, it's so loud. There'd be a lot of screaming. When we're all there together, Like little girls. Yeah. Just so pumped on life. And Uzo has been in here before and she's one of my favorite people.

Yeah, I'm I I love Uzo so much. I respect her so much. She's so intelligent and so far off from the character that she's like

So different. Designer. Yeah. I mean it's like it's epic.

So your single all the way that just came out. What is the difference for you? I know you've DJ for a long time and done music for a long time cuz I heard you say before, you actually get more nervous like when you're on set, maybe cuz you've done it for so long. Um, you're more comfortable and you don't get nervous, but you actually get nervous sometimes before going on stage. Is that still the case?

Yeah, and it's mostly because like the people staring back at me, they're like, All right, do something. I feel like that every single time in my life. And that's usually in New York and L. A. only. I don't know. I think it's because music's my my heart and soul. It's like my

Your first passion?

I would say it's my first passion because I would never ever um

Choose between your children.

Yeah. Yeah, thank you. I guess it's like my heart just like, "Here it is." I write all my lyrics and melodies and stuff. So they're like party jams and stuff, but there's always like the ride of life. It's like, yeah, today sucks. Yeah. But it's always about like love. Like at the end of the day, I know it's corny, but I I said I'll bring it back to that.

You almost went to um Ballet school and did that full-time before you became an actress. Do you think that if you had gone down that road, you would have ended up here or do you think your life would be completely different right now? Like, I often think about it.

Um, I I I'm pretty sure they would have been like, "You're short, you'll never be a prima ballerina." And I would have been like, "Oh yeah, well, I'm out." I was very very good, but like there was um some obstacles, you know?

And then you did karate. Which is sort of like you would look think on the flip side.

Yeah, I did martial arts when I was like young, like a teenager. Actually number one in the state of Arizona in Tucson. Co-ed. And then when I got second, I quit. I was like, "I'm out." Didn't get first.

You're like, "They got it wrong." Wow. I have like a competitor. What can you teach me to defend myself?

Yeah, walk away.

That's great. That's fantastic advice. It was great having you here. Thank you. I feel like I learned a lot. Awesome. And I'm happy for all your success. Thank you. Can't wait for everything that's coming. Thanks. And I want to ballet or karate. I'm taking one of the two.

You got it.