By Cheryl Smith
When I first met Perri Camper, I saw something in her that was special and more than two decades later, she has continued to make me proud. She walked into the Dallas-Fort Worth Association of Black Communicators Journalism Workshop and immediately became engaged and literally a sponge; gathering all the information and resources she could to excel.
At the University of North Texas, she was a Broadcast Journalism major, but she was already an accomplished broadcaster, having studied under the tutelage of Dr. Louie White of the famed Lincoln Humanities and Communications Magnet in Dallas.
Now if you came from that program, you were years ahead of most students walking onto a college campus. Actually, the Lincoln students were so well-trained that many were equipped to bypass college and enter the industry!
It was at Lincoln that Perri had the experience of a lifetime. This was a school, where under the late, great Dr. Napoleon B. Lewis, she thrived. Papa Bear, as he was affectionately called, didn’t play. He had high expectations of his students, teachers, staff, and yes, parents.
I loved that he said and believed that: “A teacher hasn’t taught if the student hasn’t learned.”
That was his philosophy and it made a lot of sense. I only wish all educators felt the same way!
I can remember walking through the halls of Lincoln, in Sunny South Dallas, with some of the students I mentored, and hearing a booming voice: “All I know is everybody better be in a classroom now!”
As a 30-something-year-old journalist, who had long since walked the halls of my high school; his voice was so firm and commanding that I started looking for a classroom to duck into!
Perri benefitted from the Lincoln experience. She has had strong influences that began at home all her life. Talk about sup-port— there’s nothing stronger than a mother’s love and as Perri has grown and evolved, Levada Camper has been with her daughter every step of the way. I have a feeling that she will be around this weekend as Perri and others from the class of 1999 return for their 25th Class Reunion.
Perri has had an impressive career over the past 25 years, especially as an actress, director and producer. The Dallas native developed a love for theater and stage at an early age. She performed in various stage productions such as The Nacirema Society, Mirandy and Brother Wind, If by Chance and She’s Not Our Sister.
From UNT she traveled to New York to further her studies at Stella Adler. Her bio from there is impressive: While continuing to hone her craft, she landed a position at BET Networks and learned the industry from both a production and network perspective.
While at BET, Perri’ served as the “Chief of Staff” of the Specials, Music Programming & Strategy and News Department. She has worked on some of the highest-rated scripted series including “Games People Play,” “American Soul,” and “Boomer- ang” executive produced by Lena Waithe and Halle Berry, plus Will Packer’s “Bigger” on BET+. She continues to work on live specials such as the “BET Awards,” the number one awards show on cable among African American viewers, as well as the “NAACP Image Awards, “Black Girls Rock,” “Soul Train Awards,” and many others.
From there she became a read- er for television and film projects, and she landed her first television role on the hit series, “American Soul.” She has also been seen in the award-winning short film, “The Bill,” as well as, “The Last One” and “Sauce” web-series.
She now resides in Los Angeles, California; her credits grew to include other appearances on television series and movies such as Reasonable Doubt, BIGGER, Family Reunion, The Bobby Brown Story, The Hotline, Influence, and LUST on Lifetime Television.
Perri’ has been recognized for her ability to tell a story and bring energy and life to the character. She’s now added the title of Executive Producer to her repertoire under her production company, One Happy Camper, LLC.
She’s just one of the stars returning for the Lincoln reunion.
“I am beyond excited about our reunion,” said Perri. “The committee has been quite often and as we iron things out, we laugh as if we’re still in high school. Even though we’ve matured and it’s years later, we become giddy and happy knowing we are about to have a wonderful time as soon as we get together.”
She told Texas Metro News about her accomplishments over the years. “There are two and I have to mention them both because even though I love and appreciate every opportunity I get to ‘play,’ these two moments will always be close to my heart.
“When I booked the role of Delores on American Soul. I was just the reader making sure I gave those auditioning everything they needed for a great audition. I went from being in the room listening to discussions about who they wanted to select, to being sent out of the room because I was now being considered.
“My peers saw me differently and were able to see the talent and gift that I’ve been loving since I was a young girl. Tony Cornelius (Don Cornelius’ son) told me I embodied his Mom and I was able to speak to her on many occasions because I wanted to honor her in that role. She loved it and gave me her stamp of approval every time we spoke. She’s beautiful inside and out.”
Perri also recalled auditioning in front of award-winning actress Kerry Washington and award-winning producer Larry Wilmore: When I had the opportunity to audition in front of Kerry Washington and Larry Wilmore. She made me feel at ease when she said “Let’s Play”. It’s one of my favorite things to hear. She later was my director for Episode 1 and had conversations with me and validated the work by calling it beautiful and raw. The entire experience was mind-blowing.
If you know Perri, you have to love her. She is such a loving, compassionate, spiritually grounded woman who has made her family, schools, community, and industry proud. Congrats to Lincoln’s Class of 1999 and Perri Camper Rivers !
Perri’s thoughts
What does the future hold for Perri? She desires to continue to act, produce, and build her production company, One Happy Camper. “I also have a non-profit 501c3 organization that I’m working on and developing more, One Happy Camper Foundation, where we nurture youth voices through creative empowerment.
“On a personal side, I love to travel and my goal is to visit most, if not all of the continents.”
I wish all high school students could have fond memories of high school that Perri has. Unfortunately, times have changed and school is not the same. Hopefully, we can rekindle some of the same spirit that permeated throughout the halls of Lincoln Humanities and Communications Magnet High School.
“The choir at Lincoln High School was and will always be special to me. We traveled. We won competitions. I still remember our show choir performance and performing on the boat in Bahamas. I re- member traveling to Hawaii and receiving all 1’s in UIL. This all Black choir was singing in different languages and all genres. We were that choir! Special love and the utmost appreciation to the late Audrey Jones.
“My specialty was Radio Television Film and I absolutely loved it. We had the equipment and the talent coming by to be interviewed any time they stopped in Dallas for a concert. I had the pleasure of interviewing Jagged Edge, Destiny’s Child, Ray J. Fifth Ward Boys and more. I really did learn so much and even made it my major at UNT because of the program at Lincoln. Dr White also was over theater and I played the little boy Travis in “A Raisin in the Son” and won an award for it. Just reminiscing on those moments makes my heart warm! Shout out to Dr. Louie White.
I’ll always respect him.
UNT
I’m a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. The Ace on the line of 20 lovely line sisters – 21 Dimensions of a Divine Destiny, Fall 2002 from the Amazin’ Zeta Eta Chapter. I will always remember going to the 1 o’clock lounge in the Union and hanging out with my peers. It was a beautiful site to uphold. I think many of us were late to class or either scheduled around the meetup that took place daily. My love for silent films and my major in RTVF grew immensely.
Home Church
I grew up and was reared at Victory Temple COGIC so that’s where I received my foundation as a believer. I have so many memories because I was literally in church over half the week. I’m tickled thinking about that. Some of my fondest memories was my easter speech – The Third Man. We had some dramatic effects with flickering the lights to signify lightning and the drums, to signify the thunder. It was at that moment, I knew I wanted to be a storyteller. I’ll always love and honor Sis. Jean Watson and Sis. Valerie Rolfe for seeing something in me. I still talk to the girls I grew up with and we try to get together when I’m in town. When I go back to my home church, I always feel welcomed and loved and it’s the same in return. Blessing and honor to Pastor Lafayette Whitley who I love wholeheartedly.
