Natasha Ricketts has known how to name her identity since she was 12. The Oakland Park performer remembers telling her father she liked girls the same way she liked boys. His response gave her language and acceptance.
“And he said, ‘well, that would be considered bisexual. And i love you just the same.’”
Ricketts, 33, identifies as a pansexual cisgender woman. Coming out early made friendships at school difficult, but she believes it also helped her become a confident adult who can enter a room knowing exactly who she is.
That confidence now commands stages across Wilton Drive. After about a year and a half of performing there, Ricketts won OutSFL’s Best Local Entertainer and Best Musician honors. She performs Pitch, Please on Wednesdays and Megamix Saturdays with Brian Mason at Alibi, as well as alternating Mondays at Next. Her theater work has included “Jagged Little Pill” at the Broward Center, with “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” ahead.
Ricketts also uses her platform to support community organizations. Her recurring partnerships have included CAN Community Health, Midland Medical, Broward House and Slow Burn Theatre at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.
Still, she counts her chosen family among her greatest accomplishments. Fellow performers, including Miss Bouvèé and Mason, encourage her to become better each day.
For Ricketts, pride requires strength, visibility and a refusal to surrender personal power.
“It means never hiding in the face of adversity. It means holding your power even when the rest of the world wants to take it from you,” she said. “Being out can often be harder than being proud.”
Her advice to LGBTQ youth is similarly direct: “Don’t let what’s happening around you convince you to make yourself smaller. Be kind. Be safe. But don’t stop being you.”
Ricketts reminds young people that authenticity will draw the right people toward them, and that their lives should not be spent wondering who they might have become.
“The world doesn’t need another copy of someone else. It needs you,” she said.
Her personal motto, borrowed from Lady Gaga, fits a performer whose life blends art and authenticity: “I live halfway between reality and theater at all times. And I was born this way.”
