Once the sought-after video girl, this sexy siren has helped multi-platinum artists like Jay-Z, R Kelly and LL Cool J sell millions of albums with her sensual dancing. In a word, Karrine was H-O-T. So hot that she made as much as $2500 a day in videos and was selected by well-known film director F Gary Gray to co-star in his film, "A Man Apart", starring Vin Diesel. But the film and music video sets, swanky Hollywood and New York restaurants and trysts with the celebrities featured in the pages of "People" and in "Touch" magazines only touches the surface of Karrine Steffans' life. Her journey is filled with physical abuse, rape, drug and alcohol abuse, homelessness and single motherhood - all by the age of 26. By sharing her story, Steffans hopes to shed light on an otherwise romanticized industry and help young women avoid the same pitfalls she encountered - and if they're already in danger, she hopes to inspire them to find a way to dig themselves out of what she knows first-hand to be a cycle of hopelessness and despair.
Author Biography
Karrine Steffans is a former hip hop music video feature star who made the transition into film as an actress co-starring opposite action star Vin Diesel and veteran actor Lorenz Tate in the hit film, A Man Apart. She lives in southern California with her son. Karen Hunter is one of the most sought-after collaborators in publishing. She has teamed up to write five best-sellers in her last eight books including: On the Down Low (2004) with AIDS activist JL King, Wendy's Got the Heat (2003) with nationally syndicated talk show host Wendy Williams, and I Make My Own Rules (1997) with LL Cool J. She has also written critically acclaimed AI on America with Rev. AI Sharpton. In addition to writing, Karen also hosts a New York morning talk show on WWRL (1600AM) every weekday from 6 a.m.-10 a.m.-one of the first women to break the morning talk genre as the lead host. Karen is also an Assistant Visiting Professor in the Film & Media Department at Hunter College. She lives in Orange, New Jersey.
