“Curiosity, I do think, is the fertile ground in which chemistry grows. So I get really curious about my co-stars. — Ryan Michelle Bathé, Actor Ryan Michelle Bathé is a true multihyphenate. As an actor, you might remember her as Charlie in Army Wives, Yvette in This Is Us, or Ari Montgomery in First Wives Club, among other roles. But most recently Bathé is Rachel Audubon in All Rise and Kate Spencer, a Black woman who is a television producer, in Amazon Studio’s Sylvie’s Love. Bathé describes her Sylvie’s Love character to The Root: “Kate Spencer is a producer, she produces a local sort of local television access public access TV show, and it’s a cooking show, you know. They have this lovely lady and she’s very late ’50s, early ’60s, where women were still expected to be incredible homemakers.” The actor continues, “I’m the producer and I’m a Black woman in a world that is very new because television is still very new at that that time. And I guess my character is incredibly groundbreaking in that sense.” Offscreen, the actor will be charting into new territories: production. In December, Bathé announced that she’ll be developing and executive producing content for MTV Entertainment Studios. “Sometimes we have we were born great and some have greatness thrust upon us. “I really, definitely felt like producing was thrust upon me. But, I can’t wait to rise to the occasion,” Bathé said. Off-offscreen, Bathé is still a wife and a mother to two boys, with all of the responsibilities and commitments that both roles entail. We decided to chat with Bathé “in reel time” (get it?!) about the craft of acting and her transition into production, all while juggling life. See a snippet of our conversation with Ryan Michelle Bathe above.