Shedrick Garett

Do it yourself! If somebody says, “No, you’re not going to!”  Say, “No, I can do it!”  Just figure out what it is that you want to do. Figure out how to do it. YouTube has everything on there. You can learn everything on YouTube. You can build an engine, you can edit a video, you can do everything on YouTube where you have access to it.  If you want to get stuff done, do it yourself.


Shedrick Garett

My name is Shedrick Garret. I was born August 29th, 1973 in Denver, Colorado. Basketball was my heart and soul even though my dad disapproved of sports.  I would take a wire hanger, make it into a circle and shoot baskets with rolled up socks. I got a lot of attention for scoring high.  

Everybody in our neighborhood knew I would be a basketball star. All I had to do was keep my grades up and learn to play as a team.  I found out in college that I could do the work and excel in it. I decided to stay in Colorado for college when my grandmother became very ill. She was my heart because she raised me.

That summer, I wanted to try to be in gangs, but the community knew I was better than that. “You can’t be in the gang because you’ve got a future!” I got my associates degree in journalism, because I wanted to be a voice for us and tell the truth.


Then I went on to Norfolk State University. My grade point average went from C+ to A-. I was Student Government Association President, basketball captain and President of Student Ambassador. People were interested in drafting me and I had earned a BA in Mass Communication.  Everything was great. And then when I went for my physical, and the doctor found a heart murmur the size of a pinhead.”  

So I had to make the hardest decision of my life. I pulled myself out of the draft. I didn’t want to risk my life. I decided I’m going to make the best of out my life, so I earned a Masters degree in Business Administration.

I worked for Nextel Communications as a training and development manager—traveling all over the nation. In Atlanta, I was doing a joke about Medea at this mega-church.  Tyler Perry heard me and asked me to play Medea. I’ve worked for Tyler Perry thirteen years in 12 movies.


One thing that I learned with Mr. Perry is not to stop. Now I have my own clothing line and my own television show. Being around Tyler has showed me how to do it yourself.  When I couldn’t play basketball anymore, I used that same attitude to help me in life. My attitude is: I can do whatever I want to do, but I have to apply myself.  

So just like me going in the air, dunking the ball, I put that same will of knowing how to do the job, how to research, how to speak to adults, how to be proper and just, into my life.