Persia White is an American actress, singer, producer, and environmentalist, born in Nassau, Bahamas. She is popularly known as actor Joshua Morgan wife and mother to actress Mecca White.
Over the course of the many years that she has been in entertainment, she has worn many caps, but she is most famous for her role in the uber-popular 2000 CW TV series “Girlfriends”. White was part of the industrial rock band XE03, and also a solo singer, who released her debut album “Mecca” in 2009, named after her daughter.
In 2014, Persia White married “The Originals” Niklaus ‘Klaus’ Mikaelson actor Joseph Morgan. The two have a love story that will melt your heart. And the way they gush about each other? Cute!
White is also an activist, advocating for everyone, humans and animals alike. She sits on several advocacy boards and has even been honoured by PETA for her animal rights activism.
Top 10 facts about Persia White
- Persia White was born on 25 October 1972 and is now 48 years old in 2021.
- White is a human and animal rights activist as well as an environmentalist and has been since she was 12.
- She has a daughter, Mecca White, who was born in 1995.
- Persia White married Joseph Morgan in an intimate ceremony in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, in 2014.
- Persia White is Puerto Rican, African-American, and Irish.
- Persia White height is listed as 1.73 meters or 5 feet and 8 inches (5’8″).
- She has a net worth of about $700,000, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
- Persia White’s daughter Mecca White is also an actress and producer.
- White has been married once to former co-star Saul Williams before they divorced a year later in 2009.
- She regularly performs live as a member of the band Black In White and was part of the rock music group XE03.
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Early life
Persia White was born on 25 October 1972 in Nassau, Bahamas, into a family of six. She has an Irish-American mother and a Bahamian father. White also has three siblings, but she has managed to keep information about them from the public.
White’s childhood was not all flowers and roses. When she was three years old, her father was involved in an accident that left him without the use of his legs. This traumatic event definitely took its toll on the family. Some years after, her father moved to Miami to seek better healthcare, but the family did not move with him.
Two years after, however, White’s mother moved with the children to South Florida, USA, but did not reunite with their father.
After Persia moved to America with her family, she decided to become an actress. At this time, she was already a gifted ballet dancer, but she also wanted to try theatre.
Her actual entry into the world of acting was purely by chance. She was walking down the street with her mother one day, when she was spotted by a talent agent.
He asked if the young Persia White was an actress, to which she replied in the affirmative. The talent agent was a part of the now world-renown Coconut Grove Children’s Theater, which White joined.
Since that fateful meeting, she has been a performer, delving into different forms of performance arts including, dance, acting, singing, and painting, which she still does.
After high school, White signed with Ford Agency and became a part of the Screen Actors Guild. Thereafter, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting full-time.
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Career
Persia White initially wanted to be a singer and not an actress. When she first moved to Los Angeles, she pursued singing opportunities but had to turn a lot of them down. White received several album deals, but she rejected them because of the lack of creative control offered in the contracts.
She wanted to have more of a say in how the music turned out and wanted to make music from her heart, saying: “When I make music I want it to be honest and to be me. I wanted to wait and do it the way I felt it should be in my heart.”
The realisation that she couldn’t immediately pursue music presented a huge setback to her, but White is tenacious, and she simply turned to acting.
Her first acting roles were uncredited, but soon, she began to garner more attention for her work and appeared in the films “Red Letters”, “Blood Dolls”, “Operation Sandman”, and “Suddenly”. She also made appearances in several TV series including “Angel”, “NYPD Blue”, “The Steve Harvey Show”, “Brooklyn South”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, and “Breaker High” opposite Ryan Gosling.
White has also made appearances in music videos and can be seen in Chrisette Michelle’s video for her song “Be OK”.
She is not just an actor and co-produced the award-winning 2005 documentary “Earthlings”, which is about how humanity uses other animals as pets, food, clothing, etc. The documentary was narrated by Joaquin Phoenix.
In 2011, White won the award for Best Performance by an actor at the American Black Film Festival for her work in “Dysfunctional Friends”.
With regards to her music career, she has explored quite a bit. She was a part of the industrial rock band XE03, which consisted of White on the lyrics and vocals, and her bandmate Roy Gnan, who was in charge of programming and noise. XE03 stands for Xenon Trioxide, and their sound has been described as heavy, dark, and moody.
The band released a number of songs together before they split up. White went solo and then released her debut album “Mecca”, named after her daughter. Mecca is a twelve-track album that combines several elements of music including, electronica and trip-hop as well as elements of blues and prog-rock.
The album features a number of guest stars including, Tricky and White’s ex-fiance Saul Williams. The album was produced by Persia, mixed by Dave Way, and mastered by Brian ‘BigBass’ Gardner. “Tease”, “Choices”, and “Past Mistakes”, the last three songs on “Mecca” were featured in episodes of “Girlfriends”.
Persia White in “Girlfriends”
In 2000, Persia White landed a role in CW’s TV series “Girlfriends” in a lead role. She played the role of Lynn Searcy throughout the show’s nine seasons until the show’s abrupt cancellation in 2008.
“Girlfriends” was incredibly successful during its run. It was the top TV show in African American homes for over eight years as well as a leading show for all women aged 14 to 42.
In 2019, White and her co-stars from the show Tracee Ellis Ross, Jill Marie Jones, and Golden Brooks, starred in an episode of the show “Black-ish”.
They did not reprise their roles from the series. Despite that, fans of “Girlfriends” must have loved seeing them all come together because they started clamouring for a reboot.
White has described how she felt when she saw her former co-stars, saying, “to have us all together, that was the most incredible, strange and nostalgic feeling, but then it also felt like home.”
The same must apply to the other women because like fans of the show, they have also expressed their willingness to return for a reboot.
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Personal life
Persia White is currently married to “The Vampire Diaries” and “The Originals” Niklaus ‘Klaus’ Mikaelson actor Joseph Morgan. Their love story is straight out of a movie production too!
The couple met during the filming of “The Vampire Diaries”, in which Morgan was the main lead and White starred as Bonnie Bennet’s mother for seven episodes. While they did meet during the course of the show, they didn’t exactly meet on set since they didn’t have many scenes together.
Morgan told The Associated Press about how they met, “We didn’t know each other before The Vampire Diaries, but we didn’t meet on set. We met in the lobby area where they bring everyone in and they send people off to hair and makeup and set and different things.
“And we just got talking there and that little chat lasted about two hours. And I thought, ‘Well, I definitely want to see her again.’ And it grew from there. And then we rarely spent any time apart since that point when we met.”
After dating for a few years, the two announced their engagement in May 2014 and proceeded to get married on 5 July 2014 in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.
While the two haven’t had any children together, Morgan adopted White’s daughter, Mecca White, after their marriage.
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Their lives are so intertwined that Morgan said he would have loved to act alongside his wife, but it wouldn’t make sense for her to play anyone other than Bonnie’s mother, who didn’t have much of a part to play in “The Originals”.
He has described how supportive she has been though, saying, “She comes to set frequently and is there. I’ll get home after an exhausting 16-hour day, and there’s some food and a beer in the fridge.
“She’s incredibly, incredibly supportive. I don’t think I could do it without her because it’s such long hours and such a taxing job.”
She was also previously married to Saul Williams, whom she met on the set of “Girlfriends”. Their marriage did not last up to a year, though, and she announced via her MySpace blog that they were no longer together.
Where is Persia White now? She is a human and animal rights activist as well as an environmentalist. In 2005, she was honoured by PETA as the Humanitarian of the Year.
She is also a board member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as well as the Humane Society of the United States.
White is also the owner of the production company, Echoed Images, which aims to create conscious, world-changing media.
Mecca White (Persia White daughter)
Persia White has a daughter by the name of Mecca White, who was born on 7 October 1995 in Los Angeles, California.
In 2016, she graduated from The Los Angeles Film School, where she studied Film/Cinema/Video Studies. She has also attended the New York Film Academy, The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, The Groundlings, and the Sanford Meisner Center.
In 2016, she wrote, directed, and starred in the comedy film, “Juice Truck”. She was also part of the crew of the short film, “Carousel” which was directed by Joseph Morgan.
Persia White net worth
The majority of Persia White’s income comes from her work in film. In addition to that, she has pursued her passion for acting, singing, dance, and painting. She released an album and also sells her paintings while appearing in several capacities as an actress.
Persia White’s net worth is 700 thousand dollars ($700,000) according to Celebrity Net Worth. If the reboot of “Girlfriends” does happen, then her net worth is bound to exponentially increase.
Conclusion
At the root of all of Persia White actions is her desire to make a change in the world. Since she was 12, she has devoted herself to fighting for the rights of both humans and animals.
She has no doubt found success in all her endeavors, becoming a successful actress and finding the love of her life.
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