a Triple Threat, Naturi Naughton shares her beginnings as a teen pop star turned Broadway sensation turned award-winning actress

by Lindsey Blair

Naturi Naughton, who plays the leading role of Tasha St. Patrick on the top-rated STARZ show Power, has big dreams. Really big. In fact, she wants to win an “EGOT” (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony)—a feat that has been accomplished by only 12 people. A lofty goal, to be sure, but if sheer drive and talent have anything to do with it, she’ll be one of the few.

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Naughton was just five years old, growing up in East Orange, N.J., when she decided she wanted to sing for a living. She performed in the choir at the New Hope Baptist Church—following in the footsteps of fellow East Orange native and pop legend Whitney Houston.

She was a natural from the start.

“Oh, I wasn’t shy at all; I was a total ham,” Naughton said of her childhood self. Still, it wasn’t until she was chosen to sing a solo during a church service that she felt her confidence had been validated.

“After my performance people said, ‘Who is this tiny girl with such a big voice?’ ”

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For Naughton, that validity meant game on. With the support of her parents, she began taking vocal and piano lessons and immersing herself in ballet, jazz, and tap. She was 14 when she caught her first big break, singing the National Anthem during a New Jersey Nets game at the Izod Center in East Rutherford. Minutes after the rousing performance, a man introduced himself to Naughton’s parents and explained that he was starting an all-girl singing group. The young girl, he said, had exactly what they were looking for.

“We all thought, yeah, right,” she said of his offer to potentially snag a record deal.

As it turned out, the man’s offer was very real, and she soon found herself at an audition in nearby Irvington. She sang Monica’s “For You I Will” from the soundtrack for the movie Space Jam. Naughton’s performance earned her an on-the-spot offer to join the teen pop group 3LW (which stands for three little women).

Overnight, Naughton found herself in the spotlight, uprooted from her childhood home and living with the group’s other two members, Adrienne Bailon and Kiely Williams, who are also from New Jersey.
The trio quickly signed a record deal with Sony Epic, and Naughton found herself fulfilling a lifelong dream at the age of 15.

For much of her time with 3LW, life felt like it was on fast-forward, she said—the success, the fame, the touring. But when she heard the group’s first single, “No More,” playing on the radio, it was suddenly as if time stood still.

“We were in Florida doing a promo tour, getting into the car from the hotel,” she remembered. “The radio was on, and that’s when we heard it. ‘That’s us!’ we yelled. We were all freaking out. All those late nights in the studio, all the bruises and sore muscles from rehearsal—it was all worth it.”

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The group’s first album, 3LW, reached No. 29 on the Billboard 200 and went platinum. But even as success seemed to hit an all-time high for the new pop sensation— touring with huge acts like Destiny’s Child, Nelly, and Eve—Naughton began to have issues with management.

Eventually, feeling as if her concerns were being disregarded, she left the group.

“When it was good, it was good,” she said of the group’s dynamic. “We were sisters; we were all young women of color, living our dream. But when it was bad, it got pretty bad.”

After Naughton made an unsuccessful attempt to go solo, she decided she needed to take a step back out of the limelight.

“There was a moment when I told people I didn’t want to sing again or be in the business,” she said, “because I was so hurt by what happened.”

While knowing she would always long for the entertainment industry, it wasn’t until she attended Seton Hall University that Naughton realized there was more to the business than just belonging to a singing group. It was during this time that the performer discovered a new love: Broadway.

She auditioned for and landed the starring role of Little Inez in the Tony Award–winning Broadway production of Hairspray, which offered her the chance not just to sing again, but to dance and act as well.

“It really changed my life and changed my perspective on the business,” Naughton said of her experience on Broadway. “I realized I was giving away too much control and power. The group didn’t make me, and it wasn’t going to break me.”

Reinvigorated, and with an entirely new outlook on her creative career, Naughton was ready to reestablish herself in the industry as the proverbial triple threat she’d always dreamed of being.

She hired an agent and hit the ground running. After a lengthy audition process, Naughton landed the lead role of rap icon Lil’ Kim in Notorious, the biographical film about rapper the Notorious B.I.G.

“It was so dope, but also very intimidating,” she said of her chance to play the role. “It’s always difficult to portray real life characters.”

Naughton credits the film’s director, George Tillman, Jr., with pushing her boundaries as an actress.

“I was nervous to make the jump from teen pop star to this sexual hip-hop icon,” she admitted. “But George gave me the boost I needed, and I was able to embrace my womanhood and my body and just… embrace being sexy.”

The entire film was shot in the streets of Brooklyn, where B.I.G. was born and raised. Industry game changers like Faith Evans and Diddy (and even Voletta Wallace, the mother of B.I.G.) visited the set to lend their support and aid in the production’s authenticity.

Naughton tapped into that new awareness of her sex appeal to play her current character on the STARZ hit show Power—a New York City-based drama that follows nightclub owner James St. Patrick (played by Omari Hardwick), who gets involved in the city’s biggest illegal drug network.

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Naughton plays James’s wife, Tasha St. Patrick.

“Tasha is such a badass, and such a boss,” she said when explaining what attracted her to this character.

“Strong as a woman, as a mother, and as a wife. When I read the first script, I’ll admit, I thought Tasha was a little risqué and scary, but she’s also fearless and layered and complex.”

To prepare for the role, Naughton drew inspiration from
watching classics like The Sopranos, Casino, and Carlito’s Way. But her final motivation comes from the hair, makeup, and wardrobe
right before a scene.

“Once it all comes together, I look in the mirror and say, ‘Oh, there she is. There’s Tasha.’ Once I do that, I walk differently, I talk differently, I just have a different swag about me.”

With its third season wrapped, Power—created by Courtney Kemp Agboh and produced by the rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson—is hitting on all cylinders, gaining record-breaking ratings for STARZ. It’s meant success for Naughton, too, who won the 2017 NAACP award for Best Actress in a Drama.

Naughton, who is now beginning another chapter of her life motherhood—has moved far beyond the days of letting negativity
bring her down.

“Don’t let other people determine your happiness,” she said of
lessons learned. “You have to recognize that you are in control and you hold the power over yourself and your happiness.”

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