Deadly Beauty: Horror’s Scream Queens and Rising Talent: Ayse Nichelle Howard

Deadly Beauty: Horror’s Scream Queens and Rising Talent: Ayse Nichelle Howard

“I was born and raised in northern NJ and moved out to OH when I was 16. I am 24 now. I have always had an interest in wanting experience in all fields of the arts but never really expected to go into the acting field. Previous to my acting debut I dabbled in painting, writing, and photography. I have always had a love for horror, Scream being my introduction to the genre, a fairly new one, I know but I was somewhat sheltered as a child and the horror genre was forbidden to me, but that one single pay per view rental changed it all, nobody could keep me away from watching every horror I could get my hands on.

In my free time I play video games, read a lot of fantasy, and watch a lot of indie horror as well as some big screen horror. After working with Concept Media on The Sleeping Soul I have a huge new appreciation for the indie horror genre. Its been a tough and long road getting to the point in life I’m at today, but with every film I work on I just pour my frustration and stresses into my acting and that seems to work out pretty well for horror.”*

Location: My home base is the lovely Dayton, OH

1. How did you get into the industry?

The way I got into the industry was quite random, Shawn Burkett and I had been friends since I had first moved out to Dayton when I was 16 and throughout the years I had worked with him on a few different projects such as music videos. Around the age of 21 he started having me do some photo shoots with him and this was also around the time he started to express an interest in getting into doing indie horror. A couple years later I had a phone call from him asking me to come do The Sleeping Soul, the previous actress he had had some complications and wasn’t able to do it. I told him yes and thought it would be fun and it was. I had about an hour to go over the script before we started shooting, it was an interesting start. But it turns out that I love it and we’re still working together today.

2. What Scream Queen inspired you most?

This one took me a minute to think of, I generally don’t have a preference of women in horror, if they nail it then I love it. But I would have to go with Asia Argento, she just throws in this perfect amount of sexy, badass, and can still nail a scream that sends shivers down your spine. Although a huge new inspiration to me is Jane Levy, her screams in Evil Dead were wicked and gave me chills, that’s the kind of feeling I want to give a crowd.

3. What are the next couple projects you are working on?

We actually just finished shooting “Summon” which I will not only be featured in but is my writing debut as well. It will be on our montage film “Watch This”. I will also be working on the set of “Midsummer Nightmares 2“, so I’m getting my hands into a bit of everything in the business. The project we are most looking forward to getting started is “Don’t Fuck in the Woods” which I’m hoping to start shooting next year, its going to be an exciting one coming from Concept Media.