Meet Ireon Roach of the CW's 4400 Reboot

Stylist – Mickey Freeman | @mickeybooom

Photographer – Rowan Daly | @whereisrowandaly

Hair – Sasha  MaRi | @hairbySashaMaRi

Makeup – Dion Xu | @makeupbydion

1.       Congratulations on your role in CW’s reboot of 4400! Can you tell us more about what the show is about and who your character is? What are some things you did to prepare for this role? What was it like to actually be on set and be a part of such an exciting project? How did your past projects like Candyman and Knives and Skin help you grow as an actress? What was it like to see your face on the television screen for the first time? 

Thank you so much! The show is a reboot of the 2004 sci-fi drama series, The 4400, which now features 4,400 overlooked and otherwise marginalized people who have vanished from all different points in history and inexplicably found themselves sort of transported to our time, in 2021 Detroit. They haven’t aged a day, they have no recollection of losing any time at all, and the government is all over it. That’s where I come in! 

  I play a hardened parole officer named Keisha Taylor who’s called in to help figure out what’s going on with the returned 4400 and what to do with them in the interim. Keisha lost her sister to gun violence and has found the tools of the justice system to be most useful for her in the way she wants to ensure public safety. So pretty tactically, I did a lot of research into what it takes to be a PO in Michigan and really focused on her life timeline with this big ol’ white board (I’m such a visual learner). Then, as someone who is personally incredibly affected by gun violence and understands both sides of the public safety issue growing up in Chicago, I also thought it was important to prepare the inner life of this Black, queer woman who is also an agent of the carceral state. I really had to find her stasis and the core she was working from, which can feel a lot like mine, and then layer all of her actions with integrity even (and especially) when they didn’t feel much like mine at all. Owning her complexity was the most fascinating part of preparing to step onset. 

And set is truly so much fun every day. I have so much respect for this cast and feel so much pride to stand alongside them in this story! There’s also this incredibly skilled crew making sure the days go by as smoothly as they can and always with smiles and good laughs -- I’m telling you, the cast and crew of 4400 likes to have a good time and really make the days count. Every day on set is a learning experience for me, my ears and mind are open and it’s all banked to make the next day better. As is the nature of making a show, we fell into a rhythm. But with the nature of this show specifically, it never got old. 

Working on sets like Nia DaCosta’s Candyman and Jennifer Reeder’s Knives and Skin was immeasurable in my growth as a young actor. These were my first big projects as I ventured into film/tv and I really got to see how my favorite movies and shows were made, just paying close attention on set. I also realize how important it was to have had those sets held by amazing women and how fortunate I am to be a part of Nia and Jennifer’s respective canons, watching them lead those teams to victory. I got to be on the other side of the media I’ve always wanted to make and learned a lot about how my craft comes together with so many others on a set to bring a vision to life for an audience. 

I first saw my face on television late in elementary school/early middle school -- it was pretty hysterical. On Friday mornings, my family’s favorite local news channel would let a young student give the weather report for a segment they called Friday Forecasters. Somehow I was tapped by my school to be the Friday Forecaster one morning and by our celebration, anyone would’ve thought I was accepting an Oscar right then and there. My grandmother cried then and she cried the whole way through the 4400 premiere -- that kind of support and visibility for my home and people with homes, families, skin, isms like mine is what feels best about seeing myself on screen. It’s knowing that they see me, too. And we can celebrate our presence. That is so much bigger than whatever weird feelings I’d get seeing myself on screen. Because it can be weird! I am definitely my biggest critic. 

2. How would you describe your fashion style? What are some pieces you can’t live without? Where do you get your style inspiration from?

    I think my style prioritizes comfort. If I’m not comfortable I’m not having a good time! I think right now I’ve started clashing colors and patterns that just excite me and make me feel good that day. A friend of mine likes to say, “Lookin’ good, feelin’ better,” and it’s truly stuck with me for some reason. I didn’t have money for all of the hottest trends growing up, so I couldn’t rely on the tags and logos. What excited me more was building dynamic shapes/silhouettes and pulling off stuff that maybe wouldn’t have worked until it was put on a body. Everyone knows a good fashion moment involves some staple piece, the attention-grabber, but I like to go crazy and have a ‘fit full of staples and giving the eye places to go. With this I think I’m heavily influenced by androgynous styles that glorify the person within the body before the body itself and really bring the inside out. Some other styles I follow closely are Tierra Whack and Kari Faux. Great artists with great closets! So I guess I would describe my style as dynamic comfort? Is that a thing -- can I make that a thing?

3. As a BU alumnus, what are some of the most important things you learned in school that you use in your personal life as well as your acting career?

    Something I’ll take away from my time at BU is the marriage I found between language and the body in the progression of studio classes there. Words and poetry were my first love in art, so I’ve always spent a lot of time with them as an actor. This can lead to “heady” performances sometimes or letting the words live more than the person does. This one physical acting class helped me bridge that gap on stage/screen and also as a person/writer! I’m also grateful to have built my own experience at BU and been surrounded by can-do creatives who are unafraid to make their own way into their work and thus the larger world.

4. Tell us more about your writing! What topics do you write about and what are some of your favorite pieces that you’ve written? Do you plan on pursuing writing as a part of your career, and if so how? How do you hope to change the world through writing?

    My writing primarily lives in a world of poetry, no matter what media/medium I’m working in, honestly. Some favorite pieces of mine are one of my first poems from 9-year-old Ireon to the moon in my window, ‘Winter Moon,’ and a choreo-poem play on liberation called ‘Are You Ready to Smash White Things?’ after a poem by The Last Poets. Since opening my senses to the creative world through spoken word/slam poetry with Def Poetry Jam and my own involvement in youth slams around Chicago, I know how steeped those forms are in speaking truth to power and giving voice to the voiceless pieces of oneself and tribe. Chicago poetry G.O.A.T Gwendolyn Brooks says, “Poetry is life distilled,” meaning poetry gives voice to the most true things we (don’t always) know. It is in every action we do or don’t take, everything we do or don’t say and relies on our humanity. I’m not always sure that writing changes the world, but it can change the people who move within it and the realities they go on to build. I absolutely plan on further folding writing into my body of work as I hope my career keeps as many legs and routes as the ones that brought me here

5. As someone who identifies as a queer woman, how has being a part of the LGBTQ+ community affected your opportunities and your professional career? How are you using your platform/hoping to use your platform in order to boost representation of the community in the media and encourage acceptance, diversity, and equality in society?

   I feel very fortunate to be coming off of a history and the backs of queer people in media who have laid a lot of groundwork for me to move safely through this industry. At least more safely than ever before. I think we are coming to a time in media, as with the fight for visibility of any marginalized identity, where there is room for the nuance of what it means/looks like/feels like to be queer. It’s exciting to be a part that conversation onscreen just in my own being and without the pressure to subscribe to one way of performing this piece of myself. And that’s the key, isn’t it? It is difficult for some folks to love and care for that which they do not know. This can make it more difficult for other folks to get to know and love those parts of themselves of which the world is ignorant or afraid. So the most revolutionary thing I can do with this platform is to be fully and unflinchingly myself. It’s the strongest and at times hardest thing for us all to do. Show the world what else there is to love, you know? 

6. What does empowerment mean to you and how do you embody that definition?

    Empowerment is communal to me. It is to gather energy from or give energy to a tribe of any number at any given time with which you identify. And I don’t think this is a stagnant community or nearly as fixed as we try to make it -- it’s ever-changing by our needs and vulnerabilities to have them met and salved. It’s knowing that you aren’t alone, as someone feeling on top of the world or like you’re losing your footing (a duality we all possess). Empowerment is very intentional, and yet very sneaky; often silently acknowledging the piece of You that exists in everyone in the proverbial tribe and working toward your collective success.