She has a starring role as Nellie Biles, the mother of Olympic gymnastics phenom Simone Biles, in Lifetime’s The Simone Biles Story: Courage To Soar. This year is also the 30th anniversary of the cult classic, Spike Lee’s School Daze.
“I just wanted to be in a Spike Lee film,” confesses Tisha to BET.com. “And I had no idea that I was auditioning for…
… the lead role ‘cause I had heard that Vanessa Williams was the lead. And you know, I was, I was just auditioning for one of the girls. [But] I think she was doing another project and it didn’t work out.
So, when they picked me for the lead, I was like, ‘huh? Like um really?’ So, it was shocking. And you know I didn’t get a chance to go have a college experience at that time, because I was still, like I said, paying bills. So I got to really be in that experience.
Meeting people, working with great actresses like A.J. Johnson, Jasmine Guy, and Kadeem. And Kadeem, I mean, we’ve all known each other. Like Kadeem and I used to see each other on auditions in New York.
You know what I mean? So, it was amazing that it’s been that long. People still love the songs. People still love the movie. It’s almost like a required thing to see before you step into an HBCU.”