Janina Gavankar’s Message To LGBT Teens is; It Gets Better.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AS82y8_xRI]
While covering the GBK Events Gifting Suite for the 2012 Golden Globes, I got the pleasure of meeting Janina Gavankar for the first time.
I had seen her playing Luna on True Blood and I did see a couple of episodes of the L word and think I remembered her there, but up close she is stunningly beautiful, and very nice, but there was more….
I got a chance to later meet Janina again at the Gravity Summit at UCLA where she was honored with an award for use of social media… and that’s where I figured it all out. Janina is funny, a bit quirky and a true geek and that makes her cool.
I look forward to meeting her again. – JW
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Janina Gavankar
| Actor
| Musician
| Geek
Janina Zione Gavankar (born November 29, 1980) is an Indian-American actress and musician of mixed Indian and Dutch descent. Gavankar is also trained as a pianist, vocalist, and orchestral percussionist.[1] She majored in Theatre Performance at the University of Illinois at Chicago.[2][3] Gavankar’s is known for her more notable roles as Papi, a promiscuous lesbian in The L Word, Leigh Turner, a cop with a big secret on “The Gates“, and Ms. Dewey, the personification of a Microsoft branded search engine who comments about the user’s searches. Gavankar has appeared in theatre, commercials, short films, independent films, as well as Barbershop and its sequel, Barbershop 2: Back in Business.
Gavankar’s more notable roles include Papi in The L Word, and Ms. Dewey, a Microsoft marketing character. She has also appeared in theatre, commercials, short films, independent films, as well as Barbershop and its sequel, Barbershop 2: Back in Business.
Gavankar has appeared on Epileptic Gaming‘s Up All Night, where she helped review Rock Band, Burnout Paradise, and Army of Two.[6]
In 2008, Gavankar appeared in TV series Stargate Atlantis, Grey’s Anatomy and NCIS. In 2009, she appeared in The Cleaner, Dollhouse and Three Rivers. Gavankar played the voice of “Nikki” in Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey. She landed a lead role in the now-canceled ABC Television supernatural drama The Gates.[7]
As of 2011 Gavankar has become a series regular in HBO’s True Blood. She plays a public school teacher and shapeshifter named Luna Garza, who gets romantically involved with one of the main characters of the series.[8]
She recently revealed she finished filming on a movie called Satellite of Love.[9]
It Gets Better Project
The It Gets Better Project was created to show young LGBT people the levels of happiness, potential, and positivity their lives will reach – if they can just get through their teen years. The It Gets Better Project wants to remind teenagers in the LGBT community that they are not alone — and it WILL get better.
Growing up isn’t easy. Many young people face daily tormenting and bullying, leading them to feel like they have nowhere to turn. This is especially true for LGBT kids and teens, who often hide their sexuality for fear of bullying. Without other openly gay adults and mentors in their lives, they can’t imagine what their future may hold. In many instances, gay and lesbian adolescents are taunted — even tortured — simply for being themselves.
Justin Aaberg. Billy Lucas. Cody Barker. Asher Brown. Seth Walsh. Raymond Chase. Tyler Clementi. They were tragic examples of youth who could not believe that it does actually get better.
While many of these teens couldn’t see a positive future for themselves, we can. The It Gets Better Project was created to show young LGBT people the levels of happiness, potential, and positivity their lives will reach – if they can just get through their teen years. The It Gets Better Project wants to remind teenagers in the LGBT community that they are not alone — and it WILL get better.
In September 2010, syndicated columnist and author Dan Savage created a YouTube video with his partner Terry Miller to inspire hope for young people facing harassment. In response to a number of students taking their own lives after being bullied in school, they wanted to create a personal way for supporters everywhere to tell LGBT youth that, yes, it does indeed get better.
The It Gets Better Project™ has become a worldwide movement, inspiring more than 40,000 user-created videos viewed more than 40 million times. To date, the project has received submissions from celebrities, organizations, activists, politicians and media personalities, including President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Adam Lambert, Anne Hathaway, Colin Farrell, Matthew Morrison of “Glee”, Joe Jonas, Joel Madden, Ke$ha, Sarah Silverman, Tim Gunn, Ellen DeGeneres, Suze Orman, the staffs of The Gap, Google, Facebook, Pixar, the Broadway community, and many more. For us, every video changes a life. It doesn’t matter who makes it. Read More………
It Gets Better Project
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Watch this Video on A Better Way To Fight Harmful Free Radicals
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Reblogged this on ShiftMyWorld and commented:
This interview was done about a year ago but the message bears repeating. It gets better. Also, True Blood Season 5 was not blood free for me. *winks* I wonder what Season 6 will hold?