Today

Alek Tabu's Bio

I am a 16-year-old Los Angeles native, and I have always been motivated to produce artistic content. In the womb, I heard my mother teaching weekly tap lessons. At age two, I tried on my first pair of tap shoes, and I have not stopped creating rhythms. Marcus L Miller took me under his wing when I was eight, and he trained me to be a percussionist. Playing the drum set inspired me to begin classical training in piano.

Instruments were an outlet (but not a distraction) to help me express the feelings I had surrounding police brutality and human trafficking in my neighborhood. I spoke against human trafficking in my neighborhood in front of Los Angeles City Council, when I was eight. I was determined to shut down a motel in my neighborhood after witnessing intercourse in that motel’s alleyway. I learned that people were being kidnapped, sent to that motel, and forced into human trafficking. I partnered with other community members, and after years of speaking in court, the motel was finally shut down! Activism is my greatest passion, and I refuse to sit by while people are being mistreated.

At eleven years old, I began taking community college courses in person, while my mother taught me middle school subjects at home. By then, I had been acting for five years, playing drum set for three years, and I had four years of piano under my belt. I continued artistic training along with my studies. A year into community college, I had my television debut. I had the opportunity to be directed by John Singleton in “The People V O.J. Simpson.” Our episode was Emmy nominated, and the series won the Emmy for "Best Limited Series."

Working with John Singleton before his passing inspired me to create films of my own. Around that time I was fighting a battle to accept myself. Ever since I was little I felt more authentic playing male roles and dressing as Spider-Man and The Mad Hatter for Halloween. I knew that as a working actor and a filmmaker, I needed to feel confident and authentic. Age eleven was when I knew in my mind that I wanted to transition to male. It took me years to share my feelings, and it took time after that to fully feel confident with walking in the world as a boy. When I was 14, I wrote, directed, edited, and scored my first short film. I had so much fun applying my drumming and piano skills to online software. Soon after, I attended several courses in Ableton. I have my own AKAI MPK Mini that I use to produce beats with Ableton.

I am graduating high school in 2020, and I'm currently attending a community college. I am taking a gap year (or maybe two) due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and I plan to study film editing in the future.

Weekly Questions: What are the masks that I wear that are ready to be put down? What is my relationship to accountability; with myself and to others I care for and value? How do I show up in authentic allyship without inviting the performance of my ego to steer? Where can I practice transformative justice within my most intimate relationships and interactions to be liberatory? Am I aware of the microaggressions committed in my presence, how will I begin responding to microaggressions? Can I relinquish my conditioned responses enough to invite expanded beliefs of liberation into my awareness?