Reese Antoinette has always known she wanted to be an actor. From the moment she discovered a weekend acting program at the mall as a child, her passion took off. “I always wanted to be an actor since I was a kid,” she shared. “When my parents came to this country and had me, they were like, ‘Oh, you’re going to be a doctor or lawyer,’ and I was like, ‘Well, I kind of want to be an artist.’”
That mall program eventually led her to sign with Abrams Artists (now A3 Artists) and start auditioning in New York City. “Once they saw that I was actually going on auditions, they were like, ‘Okay, maybe this is something we should support.’”
A Journey Rooted In Discipline and Storytelling
Reese went on to earn her BA in Communications with a minor in Music from Manhattan College, studied at the British American Drama Academy at Oxford University, and got her MFA in Acting from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Along the way, she encountered incredible mentors like Jim Calder, Olympia Dukakis, and Joseph Siravo, who each helped shape her approach to acting. “Joe played Tony Soprano’s dad on The Sopranos, and he was so encouraging of me… He taught this Shakespeare course in Times Square. He was like, ‘You’ve got to learn Shakespeare,’ and I fell in love with it because of him.”
Calder, on the other hand, taught her something equally essential: to have fun. “He taught me not to take everything too seriously, which is always a good reminder for an actor.”
Navigating Pressure, Presence, and the Power of the Camera
Like many actors early in their careers, Reese felt the pressure to nail every audition perfectly. But over time, she’s learned to let go of that mindset. “The camera’s really intimate… everything you’re doing, you think you’re doing one thing, but you might be telling a different story,” she explained.
That level of presence is something she’s grown to appreciate in both auditions and on set. “The camera can be your friend or it cannot be sometimes too,” she said with a laugh. “But I think it’s such an amazing medium to tell stories in.”
She credits both the Bad Monkey and Dexter: Resurrection teams for nurturing creativity and care on set. “Bad Monkey was my first role out of NYU, and Dexter’s now my second,” she said. “I’ve just been lucky to work with a good team of people who really care about storytelling.”
A New Chapter in the Dexter Universe
As a long-time fan of Dexter, Reese was thrilled to join Dexter: Resurrection and shared what fans of the franchise can expect from the new season. “We’ve seen young Dexter, the original show in Miami, and now there’s this new chapter and Resurrection is definitely leaning into what that looks like for him now.”
Reese plays Joy in the series, and her on-screen dynamic with her father Blessing, played by actor Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, holds special meaning for her. “Ntare is such an incredible actor. He was very easy to love as my TV dad,” she laughed. “Our relationship is really special; it reminds me of the relationship I have with my dad. It just feels like such a warm addition to the show and its nice to have this warm and loving father figure.”
That emotional authenticity was especially important given the dark, often intense subject matter of Dexter. “It’s nice to have this warm and loving father figure as a contrast,” she noted.
Though she couldn’t share spoilers, she’s eager for audiences to experience the layered storytelling in the series. “I read all the scripts, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It’s really fascinating when you have a great writer and a great team.”
Empowering Black Women Through The ORIXA Project
Beyond acting, Reese is deeply committed to creating space for underrepresented voices. She co-founded The ORIXA Project while in grad school to tell stories of Black women across the African diaspora using emerging technologies.
“We worked really hard over the last few years to tell the West African, Caribbean, and Brazilian story of Black women through space and time, utilizing multimedia, AI, VR,” she explained.
The project was developed during a residency at Barnard College and uses live performance, virtual reality, and augmented reality to transport audiences. “The whole goal was to bring people into what it feels like to travel through time as a Black woman in West Africa, the Caribbean, and Brazil in the past, present, and future.”
As a multi-disciplinary storyteller, Reese views her work on and off screen as interconnected. “It’s always about: What do I want to tell? What is the story? And how does it all connect?”
That connection also led her to participate in the Future of Storytelling, which gave her the chance to explore emerging tech and storytelling across the globe. “I got to travel the world and see different stories in London and so forth… That’s what The ORIXA Project was and still is.”
Final Thoughts for the Next Generation
When asked what advice she’d offer to young actors in ten words or less, Reese didn’t hesitate: “Just do it.”
And then she added, “Whatever you think is too much, it’s not. Whatever you have doubts about don’t have doubts. Just go for it, because no one else is going to go for it for you.”
That fearless mindset has carried her from childhood acting classes to the stages of NYU and onto the sets of major streaming series. And it’s what continues to guide her as she tells powerful, culture-shifting stories both in front of and beyond the camera.
You can see Reese Antionette in Dexter: Resurrection on Paramount + with Showtime, and in Bad Monkey on Apple TV+
