'The Chi' Season 5: How Tyla Abercrumbie's plan to leave Chicago for UCLA fell through
Showtime has a knack for bringing emotionally moving and powerful stories to life on screen and ‘The Chi’ is one of their best-loved series. Fans and viewers all around the world have given rave reviews to the remarkable representation of Black lives and the concerns of the community in Chicago's South Side. ‘The Chi’ season 5 premiered in June 2022.
With Emmy award-winning director Lena Waithe at the helm, the cast's mind-blowing performances make the series a treat for fans and audiences who watch it every week. Tyla Abercrumbie essays the character of Nina in 'The Chi'. Her character has gone through a lot of ups and downs and we have seen her evolve from being a married woman to becoming a divorcee to finally embracing her life as a single lesbian mother to both Kevin (Alex Hibbert) and Kiesha (Birgundi Baker). She then falls in love with Dre (Miriam Hyman) and they get married. Their journey as a couple has not been easy. We saw Nina cheat on Dre in the last season, putting their relationship in jeopardy. Since Season 5 focuses on all sorts of ‘Black Love’, in this season we are currently seeing how Nina and Dre are working really hard at rebuilding their relationship.
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Tyla Abercrumbie’s initial plan of leaving Chicago for UCLA didn’t happen:
According to an interview with the Chicago reader.com dated November 2021, as Tyla Abercrumbie’s path as a playwright and actor became more and more clear to her, she conceptualized a plan — graduate high school, move to the north side, then leave Chicago for UCLA or study as a foreign exchange student in Paris. At first, the plan had more to do with being in a place where she felt less vulnerable, as she was constantly trying to avoid being harrassed and catcalled in her neighborhood. But as she became a working actress, she realized industrial and commercial work was where the money was at when it came to acting gigs in Chicago. Concentrating on her income, these commercial projects became her focus before she started pursuing television and film roles.
Tyla Abercrumbie’s passion for acting
While studying at Columbia College, she landed at ETA Creative Arts in Grand Crossing, where she had her first 'taste' of a full-fledged production. Recalling the moment, she said, “That gave me the courage to realize as much as I love ETA, I needed to make more money. I asked myself, ‘How do you make more money at this?’ So I got an agent. That agent allowed me to do commercial work and print work. I realized I could make money and do theater out of passion as I gradually kept building more on my resume. And the more I did, the more I realized, I can do this.”
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Tyla Abercrumbie’s humble beginnings as an actor:
In the year 2000, she took her full-time leap as an actor in the industry. She started off her career with television roles in ‘The Tracy Morgan Show’, ‘Shrink’, ‘Bette’, ‘The Mob Doctor’, ‘Low Winter Sun’, ‘The Chicago Code’, ‘Detroit 1-8-7’, ‘The Beast’ and so on. But she hit pay dirt with 'The Chi' as she portrayed a character who lived in the same neighborhood she grew up in.
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