Sonja Sohn was born and raised in the south, primarily in Newport News,
VA, to an African American father and Korean mother. After a youth
filled with love, struggle, sexual and emotional abuse, drug addiction
and small triumphs, Sohn set her sights on New York City where she
briefly attended various colleges, married and raised two daughters.
Eventually, Sohn found herself pursuing a career in the arts. After
dabbling in fine arts as a painter, she became one of the pioneers in
the spoken word scene in New York in the nineties, which eventually led
to a Warner Bros/Coalition/Arthrob recording contract in London where
she launched an album, under the name, “Fini Dolo,” a collaboration
between her and British music producer, Noel Watson.
After 5 years of studying acting under the tutelage of renowned acting
coach, Susan Batson, Sohn landed the lead female role in SLAM, directed
by Marc Levin and co-written by her and the principle cast of the film.
SLAM became a festival darling in 1998 when it won the Sundance Film
Festival Grand Jury Prize and the Camera D’or at the Cannes Film
Festival in France. That same year, she and co-star, Saul Williams, won
the IFP Gotham Award for Best Breakthrough Performance for their roles
in SLAM. Thus, began Sohn’s official acting career and the road that led
to her eventual calling: intertwining her career in the arts with her
passion for social justice and activism.
Sohn was inspired to start ReWired for Change in 2008 by her own life’s
journey and her work on the ground during the course of the 2008
presidential election. That year, she and her colleagues from HBO’s
critically acclaimed series The Wire, devoted their efforts to working
with National Urban League President, Marc Morial, to empower and
educate voters on the importance of their vote across Virginia, North
Carolina and in Philadelphia. It was during this time that she witnessed
the impact The Wire cast had on community members who were living in
impoverished neighborhoods. Sohn saw, firsthand, how celebrity can be
used responsibly to influence the lives of people who are often left out
of the social equation. She was particularly moved by how often the act
of one inspired another and continued to ripple throughout these
communities.
Something
had to be done to continue to nurture the seed of change planted by Sohn
and her colleagues; immediately following the campaign trail, she began
to galvanize the support of the rest of The Wire cast and crew and
devise ways in which they could use their creative resources and media
access as a force for change in the lives of high risk youth, adults and
families living in disadvantaged areas. Sohn envisioned an effort to
take high risk young people on a journey towards self awareness and
becoming productive citizens who contribute to the well being of their
communities. During the early years of her work on the ground, she
quickly began to realize that youth cannot heal without the support of a
healthy family and community to come home to and began to focus her
efforts on creating a holistic, all inclusive approach to sustainable
individual and community healing and empowerment.
As illustrated by Sonja Sohn’s work on SLAM and The Wire, her leadership
of ReWired for Change and as a two time NAACP Image Award nominee and
recipient of the Harvard Black Men’s Forum 2011 Woman of the Year Award,
she has demonstrated her ability to fuse together her entertainment
expertise with a passion for redirecting the lives of our nation’s most
endangered populations. With ReWired for Change, Sohn continues to
develop the ultimate vehicle for what she believes to be her life’s
purpose: to educate, uplift, empower and unite the marginalized and
underserved populations of the world.
