Can you smell what The Rock is cooking? It’s a Sunday Biscuit, Baby!
AS THEY SEE IT:
Focus on Eight Great Photographers
A few weeks ago, we celebrated National Photography Day (Aug. 19) by asking our Instagram followers to vote for their favorite shutterbugs snapping photos in the Queen City. After more than 1,400 responses, we posted the top 20 vote-getters.
But, that didn’t satisfy our curiosity. Many of them were creatives we were hearing about for the first time. We wanted to know more about them and what it’s like being a working photographer in Charlotte. Here are eight of the creatives who responded to us with their stories and insights.
Today, we’re featuring: Sancho Smalls, Brandon Grate, Bryant Lindsay, Brandon Karper, Eric Wallace, Fernando Aragno, Breonna Collier, Roberto Hernandez and Rico Marcelo.
Photo Credit (Above): Roberto Hernandez
When Off-Duty Doctors Get Creative …
Recently, 38 doctors from our sponsor, OrthoCarolina, were named “Top Doctors of 2021” in the Queen City by Charlotte Magazine. We know they’re good at what they do, but we wanted to know more about what the doctors do with their own time when they’re off-duty.
OrthoCarolina is a content sponsor of The Biscuit. Their support makes our mission to celebrate Charlotte’s creativity and the people behind it possible.
 Charlotte’s Jim Rash in “Community” Celebrating Actor’s Day with Surprising Charlotte Stars
Wednesday was National Actor’s Day. Charlotte is blessed with an incredible collection of actors on our stages and screen,. (If you want to know more about working actors living in Charlotte, we HIGHLY recommend the “You May Have Seen” podcast.)
To celebrate, we thought we’d share some surprising thespians who have connections to Charlotte.
Jim Rash
Before he was Dean Pelton on “Community” or played Stitches in “Sky High” or wrote “The Descendants” with George Clooney, Jim Rash was born right here in CLT.
The Rock
Yup. It’s true. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson happily (by his own admission) fought bullies and attended elementary school for a time in Charlotte. Was he here long enough to call him a Charlottean? Ummm … YES!
Ayesha Curry
OK, OK. Technically, she went to school in Weddington. Her IMBD is impressively packed between ’08 and ’10. She was on “Good Luck Charlie” AND “Hannah Montana,” y’all.
Ravi Patel
If you haven’t seen “Meet the Patels,” a documentary made by this Myers Park High grad and his sister Geeta (who directed it), CORRECT IMMEDIATELY. He’s been working a lot lately, but you probably missed his little indie film this year called “Wonder Woman 1984” with Gal Gadot.
Ben Browder
Another Myers Park Mustang. He may have attended high school in Charlotte, but Ben Browder made a name for himself in outer space, starring in two sci-fi epics on TV: “Farscape” and “Stargate SG-1.”
Maria Howell
We HEART Maria Howell big time. We’ve featured her for her amazing singing voice in The Biscuit before, but don’t sleep on her acting career, which started on a high note (pun intended) with “The Color Purple” and has spanned to “The Hunger Games.”
Lauren Holt
One more Mustang. We need intel on whether she was voted “Class Clown” or not, but Charlottean Lauren Holt was a featured player on “Saturday Night Live” this season.
Randolph Scott
Randolph Scott was such an iconic movie star (he was in over 100 films, more than 60 were westerns), that his face was used as the template for the Oakland Raiders logo. He passed away in 1987 and was buried here, where he was raised.
There are many other surprising stars who have a connection to Charlotte. We may have missed one of your favorites, but fret not — we’ll share more soon. In the meantime, please support local indie films, film festivals and live stage performances.
What’s life like for working creatives in Charlotte?
✅ How many jobs do you have?
✅ Can you find affordable workspace?
✅ Do you have health insurance?
✅ Are you worried you may have to leave CLT to succeed?
Charlotte Is Creative (CIC), publisher of The Biscuit, wants to know this and more to help those making arts funding decisions better understand life as a gig economy creative and a small creative business in the Queen City … and we need your insights in this survey about the sustainability of a creative career here.
CIC is working with the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute (with funding support from the ASC and Reemprise Fund) to collect data on how creatives live and work here. It is an anonymous survey. It takes 10-15 minutes to complete and it can make a world of difference in how community and business leaders see you, value your work, understand your day-to-day life and make decisions that could affect your future, from zoning to grant funding.
Please give us 10 minutes of your time to complete the survey, so we and others can tell leaders what you need to keep creating — to thrive, grow and shape our city’s creative future. If you know creatives whose perspective needs to be heard, please share it with them. Those who complete the survey will be entered into a drawing for one of five $100 gift cards.
 Priya Sircar, Charlotte’s Arts & Culture Officer “Without art, life is just existing.”
The subject of arts funding and preparing the future of the creative community in Charlotte has been a frequent topic of conversation within government and arts organizations and among business leaders and individual artists in recent years. One of the most discussed topics is “Who will lead the charge?”
Now, we have the answer. Next week, Priya Sircar starts work as Charlotte’s first arts and culture officer. What’s her background? What does she think of Charlotte? What’s she going to tackle first?
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