SAMORA SMALLWOOD: My Path In Cinema Is a Coming Home – Not About Becoming Someone Else, But Returning To Myself

Samora Smallwood is a Canadian Screen Award winning actress, director, writer, and producer, founder of the film agency Hold One Entertainment, who continues to work on her debut series Coming Home, which is set to premiere on Bell Fibe TV1 in Spring 2025. Her goal in cinema is to break stereotypes and amplify the voices of those who are often unheard – not just to check a box, but because it truly matters. She has never believed her role in cinema is simply to become someone else, as for her, this work is about bringing her authentic self to all of the roles she inhabits.

An important part of her acting career is her recurring role as Monica Hill in the series The Way Home. The actress is deeply moved by how the audience has embraced the show and her character. Samora shared with Drive Music Media her debut as a director, the easiest and hardest parts of an acting career, her role as Monica Hill in The Way Home from The Hallmark Channel, and her mission in cinema.

Interviewer: Let’s go back in time a bit and recall the moment when you realized that you wanted to combine your life with the world of cinema in all its forms – as an actress and as a director. What inspired you to start your journey in this direction?

Samora: There’s a video of me at 4 years old doing impressions, accents, and telling a story in 3 solid acts. The video pretty much proves that this was my path. Period point blank.

Interviewer: Which of the characters you’ve played in the cinematic world resonated most deeply with you? Why that particular character?

Samora: I truly feel like my best work is still ahead of me. I’ve never been stronger or more present. Right now, the character resonating most deeply is Sammy – from Coming Home, the first series I created that got a greenlight.

The title’s a double entendre: Sammy’s literally returning to her small town after a fall from grace, but she’s also coming home to herself – recognizing how she abandoned herself and betrayed her truth to be "likeable" or to fit in.

That resonates deeply for me, because I think so many of us have done that. My hope is that Sammy’s journey inspires women – and everyone – to stop apologizing and come home to themselves. That’s real power. I love this character because she’s funny, heartfelt, confident, insecure, full of joy, a little sad, ambitious, scared, and hopeful… I wanted to write and play a woman on-screen who contains the multitudes within me and all the amazing women I know in real life.

Interviewer: Tell us about the transformation process: do you have a special method of "becoming" the role, aside from your professional skills? What do you focus on the most when familiarizing yourself with a character?

Samora: I love this question! For me, the gateway into a character is always through voice. Sometimes it’s the accent, the cadence, the musicality – something that catches my ear and gives me a way in. I’ll research until I find it. That voice is always tied to backstory: Where is she from? Where are her parents from? Are they breaking class? Is she performing a version of herself or shedding one? And does that shift as the story unfolds? I’m a total geek about it. I build a full inner world – voice, physicality, history, everything.

And then… I let it go. Once we’re on set, it’s about freedom. Play. Presence. Seeing what sticks and feeling free to go with what’s happening in the moment. That’s the magic.

Interviewer: "Little Samora screams with joy" – these were your feelings when you became not only an actress but also the director of your own rom-com TV project, "Coming Home", which will be shown on Fibe TV1 and Bell TV1. Tell us about it. What meanings did you embed in this story, and what does your debut mean to you? Tell us about the actors involved in this project and your company, "Hold One Entertainment".

Samora: Coming Home in many ways is a love letter to my inner child and to the inner child in all of us. When we’re little, we’re so free and bold and confident in who we are. Then the world tricks us into believing we have to abandon the most unique, weird, and authentic parts of ourselves to fit in, to belong, and to be loved. Sometimes along our journey, we lose ourselves in relationships, in our pursuit of who we think we need to be. I really wanted to create a story that was about coming home to who you really are, and being brave enough to admit maybe you don’t even know. I want to encourage and empower myself and others to slow down enough to dig deep and discover who we truly are, accept ourselves and embody the power of self-worth and self-love. We are all worthy of love just as we are, without the achievements, the accoutrements of success, the big displays. Without social media even. I enjoy social media and have built an intimate community there, but it can be a toxic cycle of seeking validation, comparison and approval. Who are we without all that? Can we love ourselves when we’re failing? Can we see ourselves as worthy when we’re down? It’s really powerful to be able to love yourself when you’re not winning. That’s the major journey of my character Sammy and the first season of my show Coming Home. That’s why I wrote her as a social media influencer, because she’s chasing the validation, hiding who she really is behind a mask, so when she catches her husband cheating, and she loses the LA life, the mansion, the clothes – her whole world falls apart she has to come home to who she really is.

Interviewer: The Way Home. In this project, you played the recurring episodic role of Monica Hill from Port Haven. Tell us about the casting process. How did you find out about the project, and what was your experience joining such a deep story about love for family and monumental time shifts?

Samora: Aw, The Way Home holds such a special place in my heart. I adore the entire team. I actually met a few of the producers at BANFF, where I was pitching a series of my own. We really hit it off, and not long after I got home, the audition for Monica came in. I booked it – and the rest is history.

What I love most about the show is how deeply the fans have embraced it. It’s something really beautiful to witness. I remember between Seasons 1 and 2, I was in Sephora picking up some skincare, and this woman kept looking at me. I stepped outside, and she followed me to say how much she loved The Way Home – and Monica.

She was a young Black woman, and what she shared with me (which I’ll keep private) meant the world. She saw herself in the show and in my character and she took the time to tell me that. I carry that moment with me. That’s the power of storytelling.

Interviewer: What’s the easiest and hardest part of this job for you?

Samora: The easiest part? The joy. I truly love every aspect of the work – the research, the embodiment, the craft, the camaraderie on set, collaborating with other artists, the travel.

There’s nothing like the moment when you and your scene partner lock in, your sense of self dissolves, and something real happens. Pure magic. And when you’re working with a director whose vision and trust in you creates space to take risks and free fall? That’s heaven. Those are my favourite moments.

The hardest part is the rejection – not just hearing "no," but staying whole through it. You need thick skin to protect your mental health… but thin skin to stay open, to feel deeply, to do the work.

It’s a balancing act I really admire in my fellow artists. And I’m proud of myself for it too – for staying soft when it gets hard.

Interviewer: What advice would you give to those who want to start an acting career? What advice would you have liked to receive from others when you began your journey?

Samora: First. Make sure you really love it. How will you know? Are you reading plays and scripts in your downtime? Running monologues just for fun? If you don’t love it, this industry will take too much from you. Second. Develop a taste for working hard when no one’s looking – and no one’s clapping. That kind of discipline will carry you through. Third. And don’t forget: it’s a business. Learn who the players are. Build relationships. Know what’s being made, who’s making it, and study. Know your stuff. That kind of preparation earns respect and opens doors – sometimes before your work even gets the chance to speak for itself.

Interviewer: As a director, what do you focus on when casting actors for your film?

Samora: That special something. It’s always there. It’s funny, casting my series and before that my shorts actually took a monkey off my back, because we saw amazing, spectacularly talented actors and sometimes this time it’s just not their part, the part belongs to someone else, even though they delivered. I go into my auditions as an actor differently as a result.

Interviewer: What is your mission as a director and actress? Why that particular mission? Which word best associates with your cinematic journey, and why?

Samora: My mission as an actress, writer, director, producer is to tell diverse stories in ways we haven’t seen, to provide a fresh take on something thought provoking, to start conversations, and stir up feelings about life, women, representation, love, belonging, family, healing, and power by usurping stereotypes, inviting different voices to the table, and being true to my voice as an artist. I want to expand our concept of what “diversity” is, and I want to invite women, Black & brown folks, the weirdos, the outsiders who never feel like they belong to sit around my table. Let’s talk, let’s eat, let’s make art. That’s my mission.

If I had to pick one word for my cinematic journey, it would be: homecoming. Because this work isn’t about becoming someone else – it’s about returning to who you’ve been all along and doing the thing you were born to do. My upcoming projects and offerings really embody that mission and I'm so excited to share them. Stay tuned!

Pictures were provided by Samora Smallwood