There’s just something about those Virgos. I can’t stand they asses, but when you lock eyes with one, it is hard to resist their charming ways. Ms. Khalilyah Laveaux is no exception this rule. The cool-as-a-cucumber Californian is as smooth as they can come. Laveaux is a woman who seems at ease with her professional life, as well as her career and doesn’t even seem phased to do this interview with Beauty & Brains.

But as is true with most appearances, they’re deceiving and the 24-year-old starlet-in-training has not been a slouch with her work effort. Our readers here are known for their in-your-face criticism, but this is nothing that Ms. Khalilyah doesn’t do for herself. In this interview, you’ll get a better insight on mind of a true California champion as she discusses her parents thoughts on her profession, how Marilyn Monroe influenced her love life and why you’d never see her on a reality TV show.

Beauty & Brains: You have a very unique sounding name. How do you pronounce it?
Khalilyah Laveaux: It is pronounced - Kha-lil-y-ah.

B&B: Is there a meaning behind your name? Or was your mother a really big Aaliyah fan?
KL: Well, before I was born, my parents thought that I was going to be a boy. So, the nine months went by, I came out and I was a girl! [Laughs] So, they had to get creative on cue. That was the best that they could do.

B&B: What interested you in being in front of the camera?
KL: It’s always been something that I’ve been involved in. I have been mixed up in the entertainment field since I was seven-years-old. I love it. I really like to see the outcome of the work that I put into it. Being a Virgo, I always find myself critiquing myself and the work that I do. When I go to my acting classes, they tape your performance. So, I’ll take the work, go home and watch the progress that I’ve made from when I first began.

B&B: How were you when you first started?
KL: I was green when I first started. I was conscientious about who I was. I was a tomboy, too, which didn’t help my security. I was insanely insecure about being curvy. I would wear really big and baggy clothes to hide my figure. I didn’t want to be hot in the ass, dressing any type of way, so I would try my best not to bring attention to myself.

B&B: But for being such a pretty girl, how did being a model or so exposed go over with your folks?
KL: My mom doesn’t like it. My dad… he knows to an extent. He knows about the business. My mom used to model, so she kind of said that if I’m going to do it, that I do it all the way; especially if I want to do it. For my height, I’m considered tall, but I’m also curvy, so they consider me a plus-size model. The urban modeling, I accept it, that’s other people’s hustle, but for me, I’d like to further my career in other venues. I don’t want to branch off into the soft porn thing just for some exposure. I was raised in the church, so that’s not where I’m trying to go with it. If people just want pretty girls to pose, that’s fine. But I’m not into selling my body. I keep myself sexy classy. I want to still be able to show my mom my work, so she doesn’t have to slap me into next week. [Laughs]

B&B: Over the course of establishing a career, what have been a few obstacles you had to overcome?
KL: The obvious – everyone wants you to take off your clothes and wants you to sleep with them! Those are things that I would never do. If that’s you, then I wish you the best in whatever you want to do, but honestly, I won’t compromise myself. It may take me a few more years to become successful, but I will work hard to make it. In the acting business out here, when they hold a casting for a movie role, they’ll [casting directors] call in all their friends. On top of bringing in the people who are right for the role, they’re going to hook their people up first. It’s just commonplace. But with those friends, you may have people who are sleeping together and they’ll get those phone calls, too.

B&B: “A wise girl kisses but doesn’t love, listens but doesn’t believe, and leaves before she is left.” Pretty smooth quote from Marilyn Monroe. How does it apply to you?
KL: With everything. Men are going to be men and you can’t think that certain things aren’t going to happen. I’ve been cheated on. It’s just how you got to look at it; the first time that it happens, shame on you, right? And then, the second time, shame on me. You just have to keep your guards up.

B&B: So, how does that affect your relationships with men?
KL: I have very good charisma. I’m not cocky or anything. I’ll be kind and polite to people, but people try to sell me a dream. It goes on a lot out here in California. They say that they can build your career. You don’t have to do all of that in order to make a career. They just want to sleep with you. Once they get what they want, you’ll never hear from them again. They avoid you like the plague. It’s happened to a few of my girlfriends. What makes it worst is that you can’t go to the next industry head and tell them what happened because they then place the blame solely on the female!

B&B: So, do you have a strong support system?
KL: My cousin’s on the east coast support me. My mother supports me, as long as it doesn’t go over the board. She’s from Compton and she’s as gangster as it can get. My father doesn’t really know about the whole modeling business. I’ve been acting and all that. But he doesn’t know that I have been doing a lot with modeling. He’ll just say be careful. He’s a musician. I pray a lot. God is my support system. My girls keep me grounded because we’re going through the same thing. We share with each other our secrets, our pain and all that. I stay focused and one of the hardest things to do is to control my temper. You’re dealing with people who are in a position of power and they’ll use that to their advantage. You have to be professional, because you don’t know who is connected to whom.

B&B: Well, in a male driven business, how does that quote apply to the business?
KL: You deny advances; you don’t sell yourself as being naïve. You have to set standards. If it’s not what I want, then I’ll be professional enough to say that this is not what I want. I am very charismatic. I can hold a conversation with anyone. If it comes down to something that I don’t agree with, then it doesn’t go down. But I have a mean face [laughs], so people already know what the deal is when they first approach me.

B&B: We know that more and more women are trying to be involved in this business, but why not capitalize on it through a reality show?
KL: I’m SAG [Screen Actors Guild] member, so for me when the writer’s were on strike, there was nothing on TV but reality TV. For SAG members, there’s no pay upfront and it’s not really something that one would go for, as far as establishing a career and all that. You know how Omarosa got to be a “celebrity”…? She’s a name now through the reality TV circuit and if she has more of a career, then that’ll be what she’s known for. A lot of the serious actors would not touch it. I know I couldn’t be on a reality TV show! The first time someone gets in my face, I would be off the show. I don’t play that. You will respect me. If I had just wanted exposure and didn’t care about the craft, I would’ve tried out for College Hill or The Real World. But with that one, I’m mature in my ways, so that whole cackling and acting like a little kid doesn’t work for me. It’s the same with me in the real world, literally… I’m a very detailed oriented person. I wouldn’t even talk to a guy if he had dirty nails. I’d look and say, “Holla.”

B&B: [Laughs] It’d be a show kind of like Survivor, but judged by cats within the game like Sean Malcolm, Marcus Blassingame and Melyssa Ford. But you probably don’t think that you’d be voted off, huh?
KL: Yeah, I’d do something like that with a purpose. I’m not mad at those in the magazine game. I support anyone of any ethnicity who is trying to step up and do what they’re trying to do. What I want to do may not be what they want, so it may be just me in the end, but if it’s something with a purpose then I’m down. It has to be tasteful, not crazy, a competition is so steep. Any casting you have 100-200 girls there, trying to make that easy money. I hold a regular job in addition to this and Hollywood won’t stop just because you have a 9-to-5. I work at night; I grind, go to school and go to auditions when I can.

B&B: Speaking of voting, have you had the chance to vote for our next president?
KL: No, I haven’t… Politics isn’t something that I really like to discuss.

B&B: What changes would you hope be made in the country?
KL: The very first thing I’d like to see is all of the troops overseas to come back home. The country is in debt, right now and it’s hard for people to survive. Gas is almost $4 a gallon. I pray that everything will be alright, but the gears need to shift. People need jobs and healthcare, people need to get a decent healthcare. There has to be a backup plan for people. What people should know about me is that I am very approachable. The first thing that they think is that I’m not approachable. I’m the coolest person that you’ve ever seen. I am a motivational and inspirational person. I will chop it up with anyone who wants to chop it up with me. I want people to follow their dreams, but I want them to live because it is hard out here. If I could change the world and make it a better place, I would, but I know that it’s a struggle. I’m Portuguese and Creole and I lost a lot of people during Hurricane Katrina and it hurt my heart. They called them refugees and they have nothing. It hurt my heart. My heart goes out to those who lost everything during 9/11. In the end, really… things are just getting harder for us; they’re not getting any easier.