Stacey Haughton grew up in Midland, Michigan, and has always had a love for music, dance, and performing. All through her childhood and teen years, she performed in school theatre, community theatre, school choirs, and ballet recitals. After college, she worked professionally in theatres all over the Midwest. Prior to arriving in New York, Stacey performed in national tours, sang and danced on cruise ships for Royal Caribbean and Disney, and worked in Chicago, doing children's theatre, dinner theatre, summer stock, industrials, and commercial dancing. Her New York credits include New York Musical Theatre Festival, Off Broadway, and various workshops of new shows. Her regional credits include A Chorus Line (Bebe), Damn Yankees (Lola), Guys and Dolls (Adelaide), Pippin (Leading Player), West Side Story (Anita), and a special favorite, Gypsy (Hollywood Blonde).
Most recently, Stacey has immersed herself in all things jazz. She has performed in the Fort Greene Jazz Concert Series, Banana Puddin' Jazz, The Brooklyn Jazz All Stars and at the world famous Nuyorican Poets Café. She is currently doing her own evening of jazz at the restaurant Autour du Monde in Brooklyn, NY. Stacey has also has sung at Sam's Theatre Bar and Restaurant (NYC), The Duplex (NYC), Don't Tell Mama's (NYC), Rustiks (Brooklyn, NY), and Sugar Hill Restaurant (Brooklyn, NY). Currently, she is working on her next show, and preparing for upcoming gigs.
Sheron "Umi" Smith took on the responsibility of managing her son Dante's career when he was just nine years old, little did she know that she would be launching an entire industry. Now better known to the world as Mos Def, her son has become a highly successful actor and television personality as well as one of the biggest names in hip-hop. His success is thanks in no small part to his mother and manager Umi's endless nurturing and guidance over the past two decades.
Smith, immortalized in the 1999 Mos Def track "Umi Says," explains of her role as both mother and manager to her son. "The difficulty is being sure you're making the right decisions for the right reasons." But pulling double duty has its advantages as well. "When people contact me about my son, they know that they're dealing with the direct entity and not a third party person," Smith says of her unique position. "I'm able to give people a sense of connection with my son that they don't get when they talk with an agency or production company."
As Mos Def's career continues to thrive in the worlds of music, film, theater, and television, Smith's management and production company, Good Tree Media, is doing a little growing of its own. In addition to recently expanding its staff, the company has several new music and film projects in development. As if her mother/manager responsibilities weren't enough, Smith is also hard at work with N'Kiru (Swahili for "The best is yet to come"), an outreach program through which she and her son hope to establish a chain of community centers throughout the country aimed at helping urban youth. Umi is also in the process of forming the Organization of Mothers in Hip-Hop, a group Smith hopes will enable her and her fellow rap moms to perform additional outreach services. "I would like to see us pull together," Smith explains. "There are so many positive things that we could do."
Darla Miles joined the Eyewitness News Team as a general assignment reporter in 2009, covering such international breaking news stories as the attempted terror bombing in Times Square and the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. In her years as a reporter, she has also interviewed such luminaries as Senator John McCain, Jesse Jackson and Oprah Winfrey.
Before coming to WABC-TV, Darla was a reporter/anchor for WFAA-TV in Dallas, where she was nominated for a Lone Star Emmy Award. Prior to that, she was a reporter for WTVD-TV in Raleigh, where her work on the Duke University lacrosse rape investigation was featured as an ABC World News exclusive on Good Morning America. Darla also worked for WJBF-TV in Augusta, Georgia as Aiken Bureau Chief, anchor and reporter.
Darla began her broadcasting career at WCLK Radio in Atlanta, which led to a position at ONDA Madrid Radio in Madrid, Spain. She later used her fluency in Spanish at CNN Radio Notícias and was part of the original team that launched CNN en Español as a 24-hour network. She also worked as a weekend anchor for CNN Headline News.
Darla is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and Investigative Reporters and Editors. She dedicates much of her free time to mentoring young African American girls. A native of Ft. Worth, Texas, Darla earned a BA in English with a minor in Spanish from Atlanta's Spelman College. She also studied abroad at the Instituto Internacional in Madrid, Spain.
Darla has traveled extensively throughout Europe, and has also visited Africa, South America, and the Caribbean. She enjoys traveling, entertaining and spending quality time with her husband, family, godchildren, and close friends.
