Abiola Abrams is a first generation Guyanese-American author, columnist, speaker, filmmaker and multimedia personality who was raised in New York City. Also a certified wellness coach, Abiola gives heartfelt, no-nonsense, stigma-free advice on self esteem and self worth, body image issues, healthy relationships, mental health, sexual health, and how to live with verve.
The first person in her Guyanese family born in the US, Abiola was bullied in her African American neighborhood for being “the wrong kind of black” while attending a prestigious all-girls prep school as a child and teenager. Her father, a Columbia University alum, was a member of the government of Guyana before moving to the US. Her mother who loved and read Shakespeare to Abiola as a child, worked in education.
Abiola Abrams is a first generation Guyanese-American author, columnist, speaker, filmmaker and multimedia personality who was raised in New York City. Also a certified wellness coach, Abiola gives heartfelt, no-nonsense, stigma-free advice on self esteem and self worth, body image issues, healthy relationships, mental health, sexual health, and how to live with verve.
The first person in her Guyanese family born in the US, Abrams was bullied in her African American neighborhood for being “the wrong kind of black” while attending a prestigious all-girls prep school as a child and teenager. Her father, a Columbia University alum, was a member of the government of Guyana before moving to the US. Her mother who loved and read Shakespeare to Abiola as a child, worked in education.
Abiola has been a featured Love Columnist on sites like Yahoo Shine and gURL.com, an MTV Teen Dating Empowerment Coach on the docu-reality series “Made,” reported on celebrity relationships as a BBC Radio Entertainment Correspondent, talked about and written about love for Essence, blogged on her lifestyle site “Abiola’s Passionista Playbook,” and hosted/produced her award-winning “Abiola’s Kiss & Tell TV” web talk show and advice vlogs. In addition, she is a recurring Love, Self-Esteem & Lifestyle Guru on talk shows like the CW Network’s “Bill Cunningham Show.”
Abiola has hosted lifestyle TV shows like BET’s “The Best Shorts,” HBO’s “The Buzz” and NBC’s “Source: All Access” and appears as a pop culture talking head on networks like FOX. As a social experiment the lifestyle journalist most notoriously went undercover to star as “Miss Picky” on VH1 matchmaker “reality” series “Tough Love.” As a part of her ongoing safe sex education initiative she directed the award-winning and critically acclaimed feminist erotica art film, “Afrodite Superstar.” Her social issues short films and documentaries about race, gender and relationships have been shown in festivals, museums and universities from Berlin to New York City.
Abiola has also hosted or co-hosted such shows as the syndicated The Source: All Access, Source Magazine’s hip hop show, and Chat Zone, an HBO interstitial talk show billed as Politically Incorrect for the MTV set, and appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! as a part of his red carpet interview coverage of The 2007 BET Awards in Los Angeles.
In Spring 2011, Abiola starred as a Dating Empowerment Coach helping a geeky teenager find love and become a Ladies Man on MTV’s reality television show Made.In addition she has guest starred on TV series such as Law & Order and soap opera All My Children and appears as a pop culture talking head on networks such as FOX. Her mini-films, documentaries, and plays have been shown and performed in galleries, festivals, theaters, and museums throughout the US, Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. Abiola created and curated the Chashama Gallery Manhattan exhibit “Hos, Putas and Dragon Ladies: Our Sexuality Remixed,” “The Goddess Factory” at Rush Arts and VDay’s “Until the Violence Stops Film Festival” at the Museum of The City of NY and the Museum of TV and Radio. Abiola also appears on My Two Cents, a panel-style show also on her network’s Centric, formerly BET J. In 2012, Abiola was named one of Black Enterprise Magazine “Best Bloggers.”
Abiola has interviewed many celebrities such as Patti Labelle, Quincy Jones, Chris Rock, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Henry Louis Gates, Wanda Sykes, Viola Davis and most recently, Tamar Braxton, just to name a few. She has worked on advertising campaigns for clients and sites such Pepsi We Inspire, American Airlines Black Atlas, HP. Abiola has also given keynote addresses on empowerment at many schools such as NYU, The New School for Social Research and Howard University and for women at conferences like Single in Stilettos and the Momentum Convention.
Dare, Abiola’ s popular debut novel (Simon & Schuster), a Faustian tale set in the world of hip hop, was taught at Amherst College. Her provocative writing has been published in anthologies such as Behind the Bedroom Door, Dirty Words, Say Word: Voices from Hip Hop Theater and Eve Ensler’s A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer alongside such writers as Maya Angelou, Edward Albee, Alice Walker, and Edwidge Danticat.
In 2014, Abiolo published her second book, The Official Bombshell Handbook, which is part humorous memoir, part fun handbook about using the power of the feminine to live with passion. She is reclaiming the word “bomshell” to mean a woman who owns herself. In October 2014, she won the African American Literary Awards for Best Self Help Book, beating out fellow nominees Russell Simmons, Iyanla Vanzant and Reverend T.D. Jakes.
Abiola earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Vermont College. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
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