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with personality, especially the youngest Johnson, Santamonica, aka Santi, portrayed by Mykal-Michelle Harris. Santi is unbelievably sassy and hilarious. "Oh my God, she's fantastic --all the kids are: Ethan William Childress, Arica Himmel, Mykal-Michelle Harris, they are so well cast and they deliver every time. They are part of this fantastic show, where I'm happy to play their mom." Working with Mark-Paul every day has also been a pleasure. "We get along almost too well that I would keep looking over my shoulder like, What's going to happen in Season Two? 'cause we get along so well. We're neighbors actually [in Los Angeles]. We didn't even know until we started working together. He's such a thoughtful actor, he's a family guy, and he's just nice. And he's grateful to still be in the business, after all this time, to be working, so I feel like he teaches me something every day. He also directs. Hopefully, he'll direct an episode of our show." With Mixed-ish set in the '80s, Tika and the cast get to dive into the extreme fashion of this era. "The clothes are fantastic. The makeup is amazing --just the colors, the tone, the essence of what was going on that time socially. There were big changes in the '80s, going into the '90s, so it's just fun to play around with that." ABC recently announced that Mixed-ish will be returning for a second season. "It's overwhelming because you want to live up to what these two [Black- ish and Grown-ish] have done success- wise. But I feel like we've created our own little hub of what we are and we kinda had to because we're pre what you see now. The take is, we're the reason why Bow is Bow, y'know what I mean? We're the family you get to see pre everything you see now, so it's exciting to create that." In addition to acting, Tika has been producing and developing her own projects. In 2016, Tika co-produced with John Legend, her first film, Southside with You. In the film (an official selection of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, which was sold to Miramax), Tika portrays former first lady Michelle Obama. What was it like playing Michelle? "It was amazing. What I loved was we weren't trying to emulate them or who they are right now, we had to imagine who they were through books and through her brother's book… We didn't have a lot of love stories with black people as the leads at that time. I just thought it was interesting to dissect their first date, and everybody can kinda see themselves in that." Did Michelle comment on it? "She didn't. I was like, Oh my God, did she hate it?" Tika laughs. "I know we got the thumbs-up to do it… and there wasn't going to be any backlash. I understand though, it's hard to... your relationship is on-screen and somebody's taking that and putting it up there, you don't... so, I don't know. One day, when I see her, I'll ask her," she says with a smile. Southside with You was Tika's first producing credit, but she had been laying the groundwork for its success for a while now. "I always tell people, little nuggets of life experience and things that don't work, all add up... I tried to produce a long time ago, a surfing thing; my ex was a pro surfer. And I just found these videos of me putting money into it, and having a videographer, so I've always wanted to do it. It's like, all those bad times or things that didn't work out lead to the thing that you were supposed to be doing --that's what you worked for. Yeah, producing is like, my thing, man." Tika smiles. She relishes taking a small idea and bringing it to fruition. Being on the ground --obtaining the financing, making it all work, producing stories that wouldn't otherwise get seen -- is a thrill for her. Once Tika had a taste of producing, she knew she wanted to do more. "You also have a seat at the table, where you're like, 'Mmm, I don't believe that's right' or just trying to make it the best it can be and having a say in the creative." Right now, Tika has a few irons in the fire. "I have something I'm working on with Amy Poehler that we're producing together. A few writers I'm excited to work with. Some original ideas. I am about to sell my script that I wrote with my co-writer, Kay Oyegun --she's an amazing writer. Just keep pushing it forward," she says with a smile. The movie script is a dramedy in the vein of The Farewell with laughter, she tells me. The themes are sisterhood and family. "Just something that's really close to my heart." Tika finished writing it last year on her birthday (June 20) while she was in Hawaii. "It was just something I couldn't stop, because it's a story that just needed to get out. It was also a healing thing, too. It turned out to be something fantastic that people really love, so I'm excited about it," she beams. With the United States under a stay- at-home order for the last couple of months, Tika has been quarantining with her fiancé and The Haves and the Have Nots co-star, Nicholas James and their daughter, Ella. Fortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic hasn't affected Tika's momentum. In late March, Tika and her partner Thai Randolph (EVP and General Manager of Kevin Hart and Lionsgate's Laugh Out Loud network) launched two new businesses: lifestyle ecommerce site, SugaBerry (SugaBerry.com) and The Suga podcast via Stitcher. "It's like the Goop for black moms," says Tika about SugaBerry. The idea for SugaBerry ["Like grandmas in the south: 'Gimme some suga' --kisses."] materialized while Tika was pregnant with Ella. "It's kinda correlated to the book I'm turning into a movie with Amy Poehler 'cause I was looking for a space or a community of just mamas or brown mamas online… I found small ones later, after digging… I just felt like there was a hole missing from the marketplace where people were not paying attention to this group of women who are highly-educated, that have money to spend, and who are not being catered to luxury-wise or mid-luxury- wise." Tika pitched her idea to Thai, who was like, "Let's do it!" Tika is very involved with SugaBerry. "Thai is like, 'I've seen so many different celebrity-endorsed things or people who start companies and they're not very involved, but you are so involved in everything.' I just want to make sure it's something that I also would love," says Tika when we connect a second time in mid-May via phone. "It's almost like when I give gifts; I like to give gifts that I would want and not send back or return. So, I just want to make sure that we're giving information, and giving the sweetness of life with things that I love as well. Even during COVID, we've been able to put resources up, whether it's about our stimulus checks, things to do with your kids at home, taking care of yourself, raising a kid in the TikTok generation, to the indulgence of being everything to everyone. The indulgence of talking about the conversations that need to be had. It's happening, it's all happening, so we're excited."