The Erasure

Akeallah Blair is from the kind hearted city of Sacramento, California. In 1994, she was born to parents Michael Blair and Bayyinah Martin. During her childhood she always pursued the arts in: theater, dance, painting, photography and finally filmmaking. She first began making films in middle school through a video production class. Due to her poverty stricken neighborhood, the local school didn't have proper film equipment once she reached high school. Luckily, she met one teacher who introduced her to his personal cameras and taught her how to edit film. After she realized that she wanted to be a filmmaker she set her eyes on the top film school in the nation, USC. This dream seemed impossible because her family didn't have enough money although she had been an entrepreneur since the age of 10. Despite her circumstances, Akeallah managed her businesses, worked during Summers and competed in theatre competitions, all in the hopes to raise money for her dream school. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough and Akeallah was denied from USC in her Senior year of high school. She decided to submit an appeal letter to the university, and in 2012, Akeallah received the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Scholarship and she was granted admission into the University of Southern California's film school. The Gates scholarship provided a full ride tuition and paid for her to study abroad for a semester in Spain. Akeallah had several internships throughout college at big companies like: Vh1, BET Networks and NBC. After graduating college in 2016, she has worked on major television and film sets as a Production Assistant. Akeallah continues to fight on to her dream of becoming a director. In 2019, she wrote and directed the short film 'The Erasure' , which she raised over $10,000 through crowdfunding. She is currently assisting writer/director John Lee Hancock. In addition to working a full time job she continues to write her next projects.