RAHVAUNIA(Like Lasagna)
Who Am I?
Rahvaunia began writing and producing in 2006 after hearing Bill Duke on a film festival’s Actors Panel. “We must create our own projects.” Bill Duke was not just speaking to the room of
African Americans as a race; he was speaking to us “actors”. Rahvaunia became inspired by the creative challenges of writing and producing and has gone on to write and produce projects for indie films and stage.
As an actor Rahvaunia has appeared on all media platforms. She has played on Stage, TV, in Films and Web Series. (Most notably: NCIS, Criminal Minds, Mistresses, Sexless and School of Hard Knocks) Rahvaunia had a recurring role (Theresa Wood) for two seasons of the Shondaland 1hr Drama "For the People" (ABC). She appeared in 12 of the 20 episodes the show was on the air. 2024 she can be seen on a show for AppleTV.
Rahvaunia was born Rahvaunia L. Johnson and is the oldest of three siblings, one being a fraternal twin. She is a native of Flint Michigan and now resides in Southern California. Rahvaunia is known as Rahvaunia LikeLasagna to help those pronounce her unique name. She loves all things creative and believes that an artist should have more than one outlet. A quote you will often hear from her is, “Art is a voice and we should always have more than one voice.”
"What good are my gifts if I don’t use them to encourage change, and inspire those to do their part in helping make a difference."
- Rahvaunia
Why?
Because… in the U.S. a woman is diagnosed with HIV every 35 minutes. 61% of those women are women of color. Yet, no one outside of the HIV/AIDS community & organizations are talking about these numbers, HIV or AIDS. It’s been 30+ years since HIV/AIDS became an epidemic, yet the numbers of diagnosis in 2017 and deaths in 2016 are heartbreaking.
Rahvaunia is not HIV positive, but she is excited about her journey with “tHis Is Very IMPORTANT” and being able to use her talents to spark conversation and raise awareness. Her mission is to get this piece seen by as many people and women as possible, especially women of color. Her “sisters in ethnicity” are being greatly affected by HIV/AIDS and it’s time we start talking about it.
Inspiration / Motivation?
Outside of the obvious statistics and the rising numbers of those being diagnosed. Rahvaunia was inspired to do a project with this subject matter over 10yrs ago, when she was the closing monologue in a show of connecting monologues. "Voices in Darkness" was a piece about 6 women dealing with the AIDS epidemic. The piece was written & directed by Tiffany Prewitt.
Tiffany inspired Rahvaunia in various ways, but there were two most notably things that stood out most and resonated with Rahvaunia. Most importantly was Tiffany's decision to write about serious subject matters and how they affected African American women. Second was the fact that Ms. Prewitt was an independent female playwright dancing to the beat of her own drum. Rahvaunia humbly Thanks Tiffany for being an inspiration and trailblazing during a time when most playwrights putting up work in Los Angeles at the time were men.
Ms. Tiffany Prewitt has long left "Hollywood" for Atlanta Georgia, but Rahvaunia is hoping to be able to produce a production of "tHis Is Very IMPORTANT" with Ms. Prewitt in Atlanta.
"I am just a ripple from the stone that Tiffany casted over a decade ago." - Rahvaunia
"I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples" - Mother Teresa