Born and raised in Plaquemine, Louisiana, DaVida Chanel always had a vision of one day working in the entertainment field. Upon graduating from Southern University in Baton Rouge, she taught middle school speech and drama courses, but felt as if she needed to spread her wings. DaVida Chanel accepted a position at Purdue University as an assistant sports information director. There she worked as the main media liaison for volleyball and track and field but played an integral role in the Drew Brees Heisman campaign. After three years in West Lafayette, she decided to enhance her marketability by enrolling in law school at Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston. While there, she interned for Music World in the office of Matthew Knowles and spent summer breaks in Los Angeles interning for Handprint Entertainment and the Los Angeles Film Festival.

With school behind her the JD decided to finally embark on her lifelong dream and live in Los Angeles. Her first Hollywood job was working at Vincent Cirrincione Associates as an office assistant. Cirrincione became a strong mentor and in three short months she worked her way up to his primary assistant. DaVida Chanel became Cirrincione’s right hand and the pair worked hard to service his clients including Oscar winner Halle Berry, Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson and Humanitas Prize winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson. DaVida Chanel’s work at VCA made her realize she wanted to be more involved in the literary realm of things. She accepted a position at Brillstein Entertainment Partners as assistant to manager/producer David McIlvain whose clients include David E. Talbert, Tim Story and Scott Derrickson. BEP was headed by management legend Bernie Brillstein and DaVida Chanel observed as much knowledge as she could about film development and production. She assisted McIlvain on the Sony Screen Gems feature “First Sunday” and Howard M. Gould’s independent feature “The Six Wives of Henry Lefay.” DaVida Chanel left Brillstein to become the assistant to one of her idols in the entertainment industry, Benny Medina at Handprint Entertainment. Having interned at HPE in the Jennifer Lopez days, she was ecstatic to return to work for the man who played a hand in some of the top names in pop culture today. When HPE dissolved in October of 2008, DaVida Chanel decided to return to the south to use her experiences to be a part of the ever expanding opportunities in the entertainment field.

Since being home, DaVida Chanel worked as a production assistant on the Warner Brothers film “Jonah Hex” starring Josh Brolin, John Malkovich and Megan Fox. She has also begun her company, DaVida Chanel Productions and is working on a personal documentary and other film and television projects.

DaVida Chanel lives a life fueled by her dreams and hopes to inspire others to do the same.