Trina McGee

Born in the Bronx, New York, Trina McGee is the eldest child to her classical pianist mother and her Haitian photographer/revolutionist father. Although her father was absent from the family unit, his political legacy continued to shape Trina's life. Exiled from Haiti in the 1960s for publishing pamphlets denouncing Papa Doc, he spent Trina's youth fleeing the Haitian authorities, who would find out his whereabouts periodically and force him to run for his life. Meanwhile, Trina learned to play piano, write songs and showed an interest in acting, creative writing and political issues. As a child, she attended the prestigious and politically-acclaimed Manhattan Country School, founded in 1968, as a result of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Children of all races and financial backgrounds were able to learn and compete on an equal playing field. This base of this education has been the crux of her crossover appeal in the present day. After attending Howard University for tw