When she was 25, Step Up star Briana Evigan followed her dreams to Bali. What should have been a simple backpacking adventure changed her life forever.
By Wanita Nicol
Briana Evigan looks radiant. It’s not make-up – she’s not wearing any. The 38-year-old has the radiance of a successful woman who’s living with purpose. She’s joined the Teams call with her hair pulled back in a
practical, messy bun and is wearing a comfy-looking top that might be pyjamas.
“It’s been a busy morning here in Los Angeles, but I’m good,” she says cheerfully. While she grew up in LA, Briana has called Zimbabwe home since moving there to be closer to her non-profit organisation, Abundant Village. Through the organisation, she and her team work with leaders in underserved areas, developing programmes that uplift the entire community and give people the luxury to dream. It’s a long way
from the Hollywood career she started in.
Life among the stars
“I did grow up in the business,” says Briana. “My dad is an actor and musician; my sister is an actor; my brother is a music producer and songwriter; and my mom was a ballerina and a model. I went to a high school with Denzel Washington’s son and Andy Garcia’s daughter, and I went to school with the Olsen twins. And that’s just how we grew up. It was normal.” Briana was on track to follow suit. She had a band, Moorish Idol (she played keyboard and sang), had studied dance since she was a child, and, at 16, had starred in the music video for Linkin Park’s hit Numb – the first 2000s music video predating YouTube to reach a billion views after being added to the platform. At 21, she landed her breakout movie role as the female lead in Step Up 2: The Streets.
But success at work didn’t come with the fulfillment Briana had expected. It didn’t help that she had become typecast as a scream queen after doing one horror film – a genre she wasn’t particularly fond of. “I started getting into bed every night and didn’t feel ‘full’,” she recalls. “There was this big emptiness. And I couldn’t put my finger on it because I was making more money than I ever had in my life, and things were lining up, films were still coming, and everything was going quite well on the outside, but inside, the emptiness was real. I had three dreams about Bali and took off on a one-way ticket, backpacking.” What began as a 25-year-old’s youthful adventure would change the course of Briana’s life.
Chasing dreams
Briana still vividly recalls the moment everything changed. “I was riding an elephant in Bali, just like all tourists want to when they show up, and the elephant was trying to move in a certain direction and was getting quite feisty. The guy riding on its neck in front of me had one of those bull hooks and was jabbing the hook into the elephant’s neck because it wasn’t listening. I just felt, ‘this animal is so unhappy and has been broken and beaten for us to come ride it,’ and I wanted to get off of it.”
That eye-opening experience led Briana to learn about the abuse of elephants for tourism and the poaching crisis. It ultimately brought her to the African continent, where she learnt another life-altering
lesson: “If we don’t heal humans, we’ll never be able to heal animals, let alone the planet.”
In the decade since, she has co-founded Abundant Village and a production company, MoveMe Studio, created to tell stories that inspire action. Briana won Best Woman Filmmaker at the 2023 Las Vegas Movie Awards for the pilot documentary episode MoveMe South Africa. Fifty percent of the net profits from MoveMe Studio go towards supporting Abundant Village. More recently, she married an Australian anti-poaching activist, the founder of Akashinga, the all-women antipoaching unit in Zimbabwe and had a son, who turns three this year.
What inspired your vision for Abundant Village’s operations?
It began with a blueprint. The co-founder was working on a different project aimed at helping women escape domestic violence in the U.S. When we teamed up, it was a no-brainer to focus on Africa, where I had already been working. The blueprint includes a medical clinic, a media hub, gardens, and a business centre. It would be a community-driven space where people could finally dream. I always say, “I you’re suffering, you can’t dream, and if you can’t dream, then how are you living?”
Practically, how does that work?
When working within communities, we ask questions, talk, and sit under trees for hours. You’ve got travel authorities, Ndunas, and chiefs, and you find out what is wanted or needed in this blueprint. It always starts with water and regenerative food gardens because if you can’t have food when you’re hungry, you can’t think. We want to activate something and get it locally led and running by itself.
How have things changed since your son came into your life?
That part has been my favourite! When I moved to Africa, I didn’t expect to be engaged in two months, pregnant in three months, and have two-step kids all in one year! But they’re the gift that keeps giving. The future makes sense all of a sudden, you know? Everything I do now matters
more and becomes more precious because it exists.
What lessons do you want to teach your son?
Just be a good person. Treat people well and do the right thing first. Take care of yourself so you can care for others and follow your dreams, because the rest will come. And never get rid of hope, ever. Once you lose hope, it’s a dark place to live.
What do you have in the works?
I’ve partnered with the Dollar Donation Club. It’s a terrific way to create impact with a small amount of
money, meaning $1 a month or more. I’ve also teamed up with PlanetPlay, the gaming community. It connects gaming with green. I’m excited about continuing to spread our wings through Africa and
starting to go into other countries. And then I want to have one more kid, you know, to add one more wild thing into the mix!
You said an emptiness drove you to Bali… how are you feeling nowadays?
Oh, I am so full! Somebody asked me in Los Angeles the other day, “How are you?” I was like, honestly, I’m so good. My relationship is fantastic. We’ve got these beautiful children. We get to travel around the world and do the work we love every day.
It is challenging and exhausting; you don’t know what’s coming next. But at the end of the day, when
I see the faces of the kids we work with, the women, the school, the teachers, and the moms, knowing that their lives are being changed for the better is just that constant reminder. And seeing
my son’s face shows me we’re doing good. I chose the right path here.
