Birgundi Baker’s Multi-Disciplinary Artistry Carries To On-Screen

Birgundi Baker can hear the song in conversation. When asked how her multi-disciplinary career as a dancer, actress, and singer all move together seamlessly in-step, she describes dialogue — like the raw, empathetic lines she delivers as “Kiesha,” in Lena Waithe’s Midwest drama, The Chi, as its own melody. 

“Acting is very musical,” Birgundi told HelloBeautiful as she preps to release her own tunes, soon. “If you say all of your lines the same way, even if it’s exciting or angry or loud, it gets boring, it gets stale for the audience. So if you can find the different textures in your voice, the different pictures in your voice, the same way that you find that in music, it can really help your acting be more exciting when you’re saying your lines,” she said.

As The Chi gears up for its 8th season run in 2026 as premium-cable’s longest running Black drama, Baker is spending part of her summer away from studio sets and cuddled up with simple, North Carolina comforts, which includes beach time with her family and homemade mama’s bacon breakfast biscuits made from Hawaiian sweet bread. It’s a grounding moment for the star, who said her creative gifts were cultivated and grown from her southern bloodline. Watching her mom’s agile, on-beat movements as a tap dancer, and inspired by an Aunt who attended Julliard, Baker knew early on that a life in the spotlight was a part of her artistic destiny. At just 8-years-old, Baker said she won a Kraft Mac N’ Cheese contest and got her first, delicious taste of what it means to create a career in front of the camera.

In her late teens, Baker entered Howard University as a dance major. At the time, she said she felt more confident in her dancing skills than her singing and acting. But watching the musical theater performances from the sidelines was grief-inducing for her (she said she would cry with longing from the audience seats). So she eventually switched her major, earning her BFA in Musical Theater from the historically Black college. Post-grad, Baker moved to Chicago where she was signed to Gray Talent Group before becoming a breakout TV & film star. Her acting credits before The Chi, include recurring roles on the CW’s Black Lightning, NBC’s Chicago Med, Fox’s Empire, and more. 

Baker told HelloBeautiful that while her acting takes professional lead at times, her dance background is a foundational brick of her on-camera delivery. She said the art of dance taught her how to connect her body to her feelings through the movement and depth of her breath. “When acting is called for emotional scenes, the breath is what’s really going to guide you. When you’re angry, your breath gets really, really fast,” Baker said. Those techniques are what drives the believability of Baker’s “Kiesha,” whose nuanced and audience-beloved love story with her co-star, Emmet (Jacob Lattimore) has unfolded over 8 seasons.

“I’m so glad that we get to see a young couple working through such heavy conflicts on TV, because we have those. We know people who maybe got married young or moved in together young, and they have to grow up together really quickly,” she said. 

“And so I’m glad that we get to show that. So to see young people choose love and fight through it, even when it gets hard, is something I think this generation hasn’t really seen,” she said. 

You can catch more of Baker on The Chi when the series returns to Showtime in 2026. As a part of our Intimate Portrait Series, we asked our featured talent to answer a series of rapid-fire questions to sink more deeply into the lives behind the public personas. 

HB: When do you feel most vulnerable?

Birgundi Baker: That’s hard, because I am very vulnerable. I’m very emotional. I think anything that has to do with my children makes me vulnerable. I think when I’m alone, maybe I’m most vulnerable. My oldest is 10, and so she’s at the age where she is very expressive about what she likes and what she doesn’t like when it comes to me. And I’ve had to be very open and receiving because a lot of people will say, “You’re a child, it doesn’t matter. Just do what you’re told, and listen to the adults.” But I’ve had to be very open so that I can accept her feelings and how she feels. And that is a very vulnerable space to be in when you’re having a conversation with your child and how they feel about you. And then my youngest is on the spectrum, so I’m constantly protecting, and I’m constantly advocating for her and fighting for her. And you have to be vulnerable in order to do that. I always tell people, I think that’s why God gave her to me because I needed the patience and the softness just in life in general. And she really overloaded me with patience and softness. 

HB: When do you feel most free? 

BB: I feel most free when I’m with my family. I feel most free when my hair is down.  And when I have sweatpants on, I feel free.

HB: What do you hold most sacred?

BB: My children. Of course. My spirituality is very important to me. I pray all the time. I pray to God every day, multiple times a day. It is just sometimes the only way that I can get through. My grandmother was a prayer warrior, and so I believe in it.

How do you define yourself?

BB: I would say authentic. I would say I’m determined. I always tell people that I’m little, but I’m mighty. Not many things that I’m afraid of.

HB: The eyes, being the window to the soul, what would you describe you see looking at your photos? I’m looking at the one with your hands up right now over your head. 

I see someone who, a lot like Kiesha, has found a way to stay calm through everything and has found a way to exude confidence through everything, because I do see in my eyes that there is something there, but I feel like it has an overlay of confidence, but stillness. Maybe it’s just because I know myself, but I see a stillness and competence. I don’t see myself trying to be anything. I’m not smiling. I’m not trying to be sweet. I’m not really trying to give anything. I’m just allowing the picture to just be. And I think that is what confidence is.

Black In White Credits

Talent: Birgundi Baker

Photographer: Keith Major

Profile: Keyaira Kelly

SVP of Content: Allison McGevna

VP of Content: Kirsten West Savali

Editorial Director: Shamika Sanders

Executive Producer: Cliché Wynter Mayo

Senior Editorial Project Manager: Krystal Holmes

VP of Social: Victoria Fleary

Stylist: Chloe Lucan

Stylist Assistant: Ramukai Jalloh

Hair & Makeup: Miyako J

Photo Assistant: Cesar Rebollar

Photo Assistant: Sean Turner

Videographer: Samantha Isom

Social Videographer: Hayden M. Greene

Production: The Luupe

Producer: Tracey Woods

Production Assistant: Madisyn McKnight

Retoucher: Warren Mantooth