Pretty Vee can clearly do it all. Born Vena Excell, the 28-year-old comedian rose to fame from her outrageous skits on social media that landed her a spot as an established cast member on Nick Cannon‘s “Wild ‘N Out.” The Miami native has more than 4.3 million followers on Instagram and her climb to stardom seemed to happen overnight. But what some people may not know is that Pretty Vee worked in the entertainment industry prior to getting her big break as a social media star.
“Well I started..I used to work for a label. I was working. I went to college for radio; that was my first passion, and I wanted to do that before everything and then I stopped that. I worked for a label, [and I] got fired,” she said at the 2:16 mark during a Monday, July 27 Instagram Live chat with Atlanta Black Star.
The social media personality then went on to open up about the skit she posted on Instagram in 2016 that put her on the map. “[I] was fighting myself in the street; now I’m here. I capitalized it so I turned funny into money, so you know, so that’s what I did,” she continued at the 2:33 mark. At the time, her best friend encouraged her to do “something crazy.” Pretty Vee suggested that she was at a point in her life where she was ready to pursue her dream, insinuating that her vision sparked her to perform the skit online.
“I don’t know if I was working a 9-to-5 or I was working my job or I don’t know where I was working at, at the time,” she explained at the 3:01 mark. But I just knew. I was like ‘You know what, like I want to do me.’ You know, I wanna like make a career out of the things that I know what my heart desires, so I knew I was probably working somewhere, but I knew like I needed an outlet.”
Since rising to fame, Pretty Vee has released music to include her hit single “Follow Me” in 2019 and her latest “Booty Squeeze” in Spring 2020. She dropped a bombshell at the 12:01 mark when she announced that the music video for “Booty Squeeze” will be available for streaming in August; that date, she shared with Atlanta Black Star, is August 9. “We just wrapped up a music video a couple of weeks ago, so that’s going to be dropping next month. It’s going to be a whole ‘Booty Squeeze’ takeover in the month of August, so we’re preparing for that now,” she stressed at the 11:35 mark before explaining that the music video will contain visuals.
Pretty Vee is not only working on her music; she also has collaborated with Citi Trends, where her electronic and beauty products are currently being sold. Available in over 570 stores in 33 states, Pretty Vee Electronics and Pretty Vee Beauty are affordable with shower speakers starting at $10.99 and headphones retailing at 14.99. “Everything represents Pretty Vee, so when I did electronics, I thought of radio ’cause I was in radio,” she explained at the 12:44 mark. “You know, I wanted my own headphones, I do skits in the shower, so I wanted my own shower speaker, you know I have sensitive skin, so I wanted my own brush line… makeup brush line… and to have those things in stores, it represents me.”
As for what’s next for Pretty Vee, she shared that she’s working on more collaborations with different artists and is preparing to drop more music before the year is over.
