BIO
AMBER BARBEE PICKENS
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mber Barbee Pickens is a multi-talented entertainer hailing from Dallas, Texas. An exceptional triple threat who graduated from The Juilliard School, Amber is a professionally trained dancer, actor, and singer.
A focused and purpose driven force, Amber began setting her goal to become an accomplished diverse entertainer in 4th grade. She was given an opportunity to begin studying with Debbie Allen in Dallas, Texas and the sky became the limit. Since Amber was 10, she has studied with the masters of dance, acting and singing. From classes with Debbie Allen on school breaks in LA to summers in NYC at the Alvin Ailey School and Broadway camps to acting boot camps with Bill Duke since she was 12, Amber has worked hard. The culmination was becoming 1 of 12 invited to study at The Juilliard School where she graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance.
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mber made her Broadway debut in Cirque du Soleil’s PARAMOUR. When the stages went black due to the pandemic, she closed out a successful production performing in THE WRONG MAN, directed by Thomas Kail and orchestrator Alex Lacamoire. She received her first crew credit listing in a feature film as the choreographer for Sundance released PASSING directed by Rebecca Hall starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga. Her first casting for a major primetime TV drama was on LAW & ORDER: SVU, March 2020, in the role of Grace Pressley. She also was cast in the role of Shauna for TV drama BRONX SIU.
To add to her diversity, Amber began hosting Kickback & Chat with Amber Pickens where she chats with accomplished and emerging entertainers and industry professionals on their career journey from behind the scenes to the glitz and glamour. She produces and edits the show herself. Chats are shown in schools, on local cable channels in Texas and posted digitally by Black newspapers. She launched her show with partner Cadillac with a chat with actor Corey Hawkins. Cadillac teamed up with Amber to host their daily Cadillac Power Lounge at American Black Film Festival with actors and industry professionals. Her chats have included Spike Lee, Michael B. Jordan, Lena Waithe, Cynthia Erivo and Lynn Whitfield and many more.
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uring the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Amber explored her creativity and challenged herself to produce a coloring book to recognize and honor black trailblazers in the world of dance. Blooming in Motion Coloring Book features original illustrations by Amber of 20 black dancers and over 70 blooming floral mandalas for creatives of all ages to color. The book is published on Amber’s Art Belongs to People Publishing and distributed internationally by Ingram Books.
isit her MEDIA page to view some of Amber's projects!
