Amanda Diva

Born in Los Angeles, CA, on July 1, 1981, the multi-talented Amanda Seales spent most of her life in Orlando, FL, where she took various dance, music, and acting lessons. As a teenager she appeared onscreen (including in Nickelodeon's short-lived My Brother and Me), but she still decided to study theater at a university, settling on SUNY-Purchase. It was in college, upon the suggestion of a friend, that she first began to write her own spoken word work, and by 2002 she had appeared on <a href="spotify:artist:7HXSDsfCgKWhoeWD31IdWw">Russell Simmons</a>' Def Poetry Jam. In 2004 her debut mixtape, It's Bigger Than Hip-Hop, Vol. 1, a combination of her rhymed and sung material, hit the streets, and soon Seales, who was calling herself Amanda Diva, had lined up a gig on MTV2 and Sirius Radio (where she hosted the daily Hip-Hop Nation show), joined the <a href="spotify:artist:5oNgAs7j5XcBMzWv3HAnHG">DJ Drama</a>/Don Cannon/DJ Sense-helmed Aphilliates crew, and published a book of poetry, as well as obtained her master's degree in African-American studies from Columbia University. In 2007 she took over for the departed Natalie Stewart in <a href="spotify:artist:0un6YenPxWZ2VW4aFGMupM">Floetry</a>'s tour, put out the <a href="spotify:artist:2WiCqhkjI3uTyinUFadqEz">Mick Boogie</a> mixtape Still Sucka Free, Vol. 1, and in December of that same year, Amanda Diva released Life Experience, the first of a planned EP trilogy, with Love Experience and Live Experience set to follow. ~ Marisa Brown, Rovi