Stage, film and television actor Lamman Rucker has been seen as the fun-loving father in Tyler Perry's series, Meet The Browns, played the bad husband in Why Did I Get Married? series and can be seen in the award-winning series, Greenleaf on Oprah Winfrey's OWN Network. What many don't know is that this handsome actor is also a businessman, spokesperson and activist. He has a creative mind that is constantly on what can be done to better the life of someone else.
"What I’ve known that has worked for other people who have taken it among themselves to change their lives, they just had to get to a place where they learned to love and accept themselves the way they are," explains the 50-year-old Rucker. "Sometimes people only change what they look like for the acceptance of other people and that’s where you start going wrong. What you need to do is prioritize your acceptance of yourself."
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"It’s not attractive to be talking down about yourself all the time. All you continue to do to yourself is pull yourself further down into a deeper place of depression and sadness and insecurity and fear and hopelessness so it’s like, having God in your life is important, accepting who you are is important, regardless of what you look like."
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When the questions were turned to Lamman's personal life, Lamman shared that it's not about him anymore, it's about the community. That's where his heart and talent are, with the people, "My deepest fear is that HIV infection, incarceration and drop-out rates get worse for Black and Latino youth. If we can curb these negative patterns, we can have the world we really want for ourselves!"
Lammar is also on a mission to stomp out high blood pressure in the Black community as well. Through coordinated efforts of him reaching both young and old--many times going back into the classroom to share his passion--he pushes for our community to learn more and make better food choices.
Rucker took time out of his busy Hollywood schedule to sit down on The Check Up with Nurse Alice. In this intimate one on one interview Lamman get’s personal and shares why he teamed up with the American Heart Association.
“High blood pressure is a major health crisis in the black community,” and “blacks are disproportionally represented when it comes to having high blood pressure,” Lamman shared in his on camera interview. His messaging is right on time.
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Growing up in high school, Lamman was an original member of the groundbreaking youth company...
... - the Washington Area Improvisational Teen Theatre (W.A.I.T.T.). The company’s primary goal was to promote sexual abstinence to teens and educate young people about their bodies, the risks of teen pregnancy, STD's and HIV/AIDS. He went on to become a successful teacher, coach, mentor and youth advocate - acquiring a Masters of Science in Education in 2000 and then on to star in BET's award-winning HIV/AIDS film "Let's Talk" in 2006.
“I thank God for the arts, which I can say saved me from the same fate because I traveled so far from my school, The Duke Ellington School of the Arts and spent nearly the entire day there,” Rucker says.
Mr. Rucker is an activist and spokesperson for several non-profit organizations and community action initiatives including A.H.E.A.D., Inc., Inner City Industry, BET's Rap-It-Up campaign, the Black AIDS Institute, The Magic Johnson Foundation and several grass-roots organizations across the country leading the way in uplifting families and mobilizing communities to encourage prevention, education and testing initiatives for HIV/AIDS and other issues.
