Lights, Camera, Colgate Smilez!

TV I.M.A.G.E Productions provides innovative and captivating marketing and advertising solutions.

Audubon StudioAugust 2, 2023

168 3 minutes read

Entertaining audiences is something Colgate Smilez doing been doing most of her life. She started off as a child singing in chorus and at various local community events. At 11 years old she was already running a business, charging her classmates one dollar to sing for them. “The kids at school would ask me to sing so often, I started charging a dollar a song. This jukebox is not free.” By the time I made it to high school, I had transitioned from singing to cheerleading, gymnastics, and dance. “My dad would say, “if there is a way to make money off of something, you gone find it” and I am still finding ways.

In October 2010, after serving eight years in the Army as a paralegal, Colgate decided it was time for a change, something new. Since people often said she should have her own show, she decided to respond to a Craigslist ad casting for a local reality show. From there her new career in television took off. People started falling in love with Colgate and putting her in movies, stage plays and on television. In 2012, Colgate Smilez was featured on ‘Judge Alex,’ her first national television debut. “They flew me out to Hollywood for my first time, had a driver pick me up and take me to my own hotel room. I felt like such a star, especially after they gave me my own dressing room!” That is the moment she realized showbiz is where she belongs.

Shortly after returning from Hollywood, Colgate started her first business, Tajoure Management, offering talent management and advertising solutions. After continuing to go on auditions Colgate soon realized that in order to succeed as a trans woman in the entertainment industry, she would have to pave her own way. Identifying artists needed help making a living and a need for a more accurate, diverse content pertaining to LGBTQ and BIPOC in mainstream media, in April 2015 Colgate evolved from talent management and advertising to a production company, TV I.M.A.G.E Productions LLC.

Entertaining audiences and providing innovative business solutions to small businesses including start-ups along with independent entrepreneurs. As an independent entertainer, it is my job to captivate audiences using my various talents. I do so in various creative ways such as acting, stand up comedy, interviews at events, creating music, dancing, modeling, and dancing. Using every platform I can, from television to movies to live theatre to online streaming.

TV I.M.A.G.E (Inspiring Motivational Artistic Gifted Entertainment) Productions LLC is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, Historically underutilized Business and a member of the Greater Houston LGBT Chamber of Commerce. It was founded in April 2015 and is operated by Colgate and her long time business partner, now husband, Keenann Spencer. Together they provide innovative and captivating marketing, advertising and management solutions to help other businesses and entrepreneurs to thrive, grow, maintain and succeed. From developing ideas into business plan to marketing and advertising strategies to audio and video production to promotion distribution. TV I.M.A.G.E PRODUCTIONS is creating a unique voice with their original productions, as well as employment opportunities for creative minds and talents in the Houston area. TV I.M.A.G.E received $31,250 from the City of Houston to build a digital broadcasting network to promote the diversity of the city and to promote television and film production in Houston. TV I.M.A.G.E will sponsoring the live broadcast of Colgate Smilez’s one-woman show From He to She, Authentically Me, funded in part by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance. The event will take place on September 2, 2023 @8pm at MATCH. All are invited to come out as we address mental health using the performing arts. Tickets are available at https://authenticallyme.ticketleap.com/