Hosea Chanchez‘s introduction to Los Angeles was a series of unlucky events. At 17, he dropped out of faculty and drove across the country together with his cousin in his Mitsubishi Eclipse, expecting to stick with a member of the family and pursue his dream of being a working actor.
His housing plans fell through, but his relative organized for him to temporarily crash with a friend.
“I ended up staying one night with this young lady, and I had no concept that she was on drugs and was dating her drug dealer,” he said during this week’s “Renaissance Man.”
If it sounds ominous, it was.
Hosea, fresh off a life-changing road trip stuffed with Biggie Smalls, Snoop Dogg, Tupac and Brandy tunes, unpacked his belongings into the home.
“And the subsequent day the drug dealer boyfriend kicked the door down, stole all my stuff. And I mean all the things however the red Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner. He stole all of my stuff and forbid me to return back to the home … And the remaining of the money that I had — I feel I had about $1,200 — she stole,” he said.
Welcome to Hollywood, kid.
With nowhere to go, he moved into his automobile and slept within the Riverside Walmart car parking zone under the lights so the safety guard could keep watch. He showered at a YMCA and ate fast food to survive. But he didn’t tell his family about his rude entry to the West Coast because he knew his mother would come get him and convey him home.
Hosea, who was also raised by his grandparents, had just lost his grandmother. Her death motivated him to take a likelihood out in LA.
“I knew I had nothing to lose,” he said of her death. He was also inspired by his mother’s persistence and work ethic.
“My mom is the toughest working woman I’ve ever met in my life, and he or she’s about 4-foot-9 or something … And she or he never takes no for a solution.”
The trajectory of his life modified when he went to get a haircut for a job interview and met a person named Jerome.
“Jerome is an angel. And this man single-handedly took me under his wing. He, at the moment, was a foster parent to other people,” he said, adding one way or the other Jerome knew he was struggling.
“But he knew that I didn’t have a spot to live because he kept drilling me about specific questions. Lo and behold, this man had ties to Hollywood, and he was a component of the rationale why I used to be capable of get to where I needed to be, because Jerome took me under his wing, allowed me to have a spot to live. He invited me into his home and into his church hall and into his family. And since of that, I’m where I’m today.”
Where is he today? Well, he’s an enormous success after landing the role of Malik Wright on the early aughts show “Girlfriends,” its spinoff, “The Game,” and its recent revival on Paramount+. He also starred within the sports drama “All American.” Recently, he launched “The Good Fellas,” a chat show focused on black men’s mental health. It began with a “re-realization.”
“I used to be molested at a very young age by my friend’s father. And I’d forgotten it. I’d put it completely out of my mind intentionally. And I looked up, and 20-something years later, you recognize, almost 30-something years later, I noticed that this had actually happened to me. And it hit me like a ton of bricks. It sent me right into a depression and a tailspin … And so I didn’t know the right way to express that.”
He began writing in his journal in regards to the traumatic experience and eventually turned it right into a one-man show, “Good Mourning.” The exercise prompted him to dig deeper than ever – and led to his newest project. And while he still has a couple of things to examine off his profession bucket list, which incorporates working with Denzel Washington, he’s grateful for his bumpy journey.
“My dreams actually got here true in a way that I never imagined they might.”
Detroit native Jalen Rose is a member of the University of Michigan’s iconoclastic Fab Five, who shook up the school hoops world within the early ’90s. He played 13 seasons within the NBA before transitioning right into a media personality. Rose is an analyst for “NBA Countdown” and “Get Up,” and co-host of “Jalen & Jacoby.” He executive-produced “The Fab Five” for ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, is the writer of the best-selling book “Got To Give the People What They Want,” a fashion tastemaker and co-founded the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, a public charter school in his hometown.