I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, the granddaughter of a jazz bass player, singing and dancing around the piano with my mom. My first career goal was to be a backup dancer for MC Hammer but my mom informed me he probably wouldn’t be famous when I was a grown up, a devastating but wrong prediction. So shortly after MC Hammer filed for bankruptcy I started studying classical voice and knew opera would be my ticket to the big city. Sure enough it landed me in Chicago at DePaul University where I got my bachelors of music in vocal performance and a minor in deep dish pizza.
As Stanley Kirk “MC Hammer” Burrel was pivoting to a career as a tech mogul I began my professional career in “Jerry Springer the Opera” which was just as insane as it sounds. From there I started doing more musical theater work and then found my way into the comedy scene at Second City where I became a music director. After writing approximately 8 billion comedy songs at Second City I decided to try my hand at writing a full musical and was brought on as the composer and lyricist of “Eleanor’s Very Merry Christmas Wish.”
Having accumulated this variety of musical skills and talents, my own personal dueling pianos Mr. Miagi and fellow Felix and Fingers performer, Robert Deason, thought I should try dueling. I started learning all the hits and developed my own Carole King tribute show along the way. I played at Sluggers and Big Shot Piano Lounge while working with Felix and Fingers in Chicago and then Broadway called … my husband.
My husband was asked to join the cast of Hamilton on Broadway so we moved on up to the north east. Now Lin Manuel Miranda has my husband wowing audiences 8 shows a week, Felix and Fingers has me entertaining people all over the region, and the general public has MC Hammer back in their hearts and TV screens in a Cheetos commercial, take that, mom!
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