She may be only 22, but Diamond White has already come a long way in her career, which includes working in theater, film, TV, animation, music and now soaps. “My mom always says that I sang before I spoke, so I guess we realized that I was an alien from that,” quips the entertainer. “From then, she always made sure to try to help me. In a place like Michigan, there’s not really a lot to put yourself out there, but we were trying these competitions around our city and I would go and sing and win competitions.”
Her grandfather was also there to help make her dreams a reality. “My granddad drove me from Detroit to New York, and without him, it would have never even began,” she shares. “He passed away [in 2019], but he believed in me and went out of his way to make sure that I got these awesome opportunities. Without him, I wouldn’t have auditioned for anything. He made sure that if I wanted to do whatever, he was going to make it happen.” It was in New York where White auditioned and booked a role in the Chicago production of The Color Purple. “That’s where I fell in love with acting, because I’d be acting and singing at the same time in the musical and was like, ‘I want to do this, this is fun and I feel like I’m good at it. I might as well give it a shot,’ ” she recalls.
During her run in the show, 8-year-old White had a life-changing encounter with its producer, Oprah Winfrey. “When I was a kid, my mom told me that Oprah was my godmother and I believed her,” White recalls with a chuckle. “So on one of the opening nights, I ran up to Oprah and I was like, ‘Did you know that you were my godmother?’ and she goes, ‘Oh, I didn’t know,’ and then she grabbed me and hugged me and we took a photo together. It was amazing. That was when I caught the [acting] bug for wanting to try to do this for the rest of my life — and I thought, ‘I have Oprah as my godmother, so I’m just gonna go ahead and go with it [laughs].’ ”
After her run in the national tour, White landed in Las Vegas to appear in The Lion King — “It was little old me and my mom just packing our bags and going to these different places.” — and in 2012, scored a spot on THE X FACTOR, placing fifth in the competition. “That was something I had never done before,” White marvels. “I was 12, 13 years old and honestly, at that point, I was a lot more fearless. Looking back at it, I don’t remember being super-anxious because as soon as I got onstage, I knew what I was doing. I knew! And everyone was like, ‘Oh, Simon [Cowell]. He’s a mean guy. Walk on eggshells,’ and I was like, ‘No, he’ll love me. It’s going to be great.’ I still can’t believe it. I don’t know how little me got onstage and did that. I would have peed myself now but back then, I was definitely down for that.”
Work just kept coming her way. In 2016, White was tapped to appear in Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween and its 2017 sequel, Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, and refers to him as an honorary godfather, noting, “He’s definitely a metaphorical family member, as well.” A few years later, White crossed off her goal of joining the cast of the prime-time sudser EMPIRE in its final season in 2019-20 as Lala, a gifted singer battling stage fright. “It was so, so cool,” she marvels of the gig. “I had auditioned for that show ever since it came out [in 2015], and it was always like, ‘Oh, this character isn’t really right for her but maybe the next one.’ I went out on so many auditions for EMPIRE and then I heard that it was their last season and I was like, ‘Dang it! I’m not going to be able to work on EMPIRE,’ and then the role for Lala came along and I sent in a self-tape and I got it! I was like, ‘Yes! I actually get to work on EMPIRE.’ I had such a fun time with everyone. Taraji [P. Henson, ex-Cookie] was super-sweet. I really, really enjoyed meeting Terrence [Howard, ex-Lucious]. There was a day, like, he wasn’t even supposed to be on set — no one knew that he was there — and all of a sudden we just hear this piano and I’m like, ‘Who’s playing piano?’ and everyone’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s Terrence. He does that sometimes,’ and I was like, ‘Whoa, this guy’s really cool.’ It was amazing, and the food in Chicago on that set [where the show filmed], they knew what they were doing!”
The role of Paris came White’s way after, and, she relays, “Honestly, when I was reading for it, for me it was the fact that I could build this character. When I auditioned for it, Paris wasn’t really anything more than an idea and I think that’s kind of why I got it. The breakdown was very vague and I was like, ‘Let me bring in my insight and bring in who I think this character is,’ and that’s what attracted me, that I got to make Paris my playground and build her. I was really excited for that.”
While acting may be on her front burner right now, music is never far from her heart. She recently released her first digital collection of songs, titled Tomorrow. “I’m definitely a singer who acts,” she muses. “Singing has always been my first love. I like creating things. Tomorrow is my debut tape. It has all of my favorite songs that I’ve written over the past four or five years, and I would describe my sound as progressive pop. It’s not what other artists are trying to do with the sound. I feel like a lot of people are very comfortable being radio pop, and I want to graduate the sound a bit, make it more progressive and push it into a different direction.”
As she reflects on where her life is now, White has a lot to smile about. “I love creating stories,” she says. “It’s the same with acting, which is why I really like doing Paris. I get to create her, just like I get to create my stories and the things that I choose to talk about. It’s very expressive, and I’m thrilled that I’ve gotten to sing on the show, too. It really is the best of both worlds.” And she has big plans for the future. “Well, I am the kind of person who, when I’m not working, I will sit in my bed and have a nervous breakdown, so I need to stay busy,” she explains. “I really, really want to start traveling the world, either performing on tour or traveling with the rest of the cast of B&B because I know before Covid, everyone used to travel a bunch. But my main goal right now is to go on tour and start performing live.”
Just The Facts
Birthday: January 1. “Having a birthday on New Year’s Day is honestly not that great, because no one knows it’s your birthday and everyone has already celebrated the new year, so the next day, I’m ready to celebrate and everybody else is like, ‘I’m going to go to sleep. I can’t do this [laughs].’ ”
Hails From: Detroit, MI What’s In A Name: “When my mom was pregnant with me, she didn’t know and she had tumors in her stomach that she was going to go get removed. They X-rayed her and they were like, ‘You’re pregnant,’ and she was like, ‘No I’m not.’ So they told her I was not going to make it because she was having too many difficulties with the tumors, so then when I got here, I was surprisingly healthy — I was a fat baby, I had rolls immediately — and she said, ‘You are so strong, I’m going to name you Diamond because diamonds are the strongest stones on the earth.’ ”
Animation Station: White will lend her vocal talents to playing Lunella Lafayette (a.k.a. Moon Girl) in Disney Channel’s highly anticipated animated series, MARVEL’S MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR, slated to premiere in 2022. “I did a lot of animation work when I was younger, so it’s nice to be able to do that again. This is going to be a really fun show!”
Must See TV: “I really like GILMORE GIRLS. I watched that whole series on Netflix about the mother and daughter. It reminds me a lot of me and my mom, and I love that.”
Keep In Touch: Follow her on Instagram @diamondkwhite, on Twitter @diamondwhite and on TikTok @ohitsjustdiamond.
