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= Crystal Shaniece Roman = Crystal Shaniece Roman is an Afro-Puerto Rican actress, director and playwright from New York City. Roman is best known for being the CEO and founder of The Black Latina Movement LLC. A self proclaimed Black Latina, Roman has dedicated her life to making art that brings black, Latinx and Afro-Latina women to the forefront.

Early Life
Crystal Shaniece Roman was born and raised in New York City. A self-identifying Black Latina, Roman was born to an Afro-Puerto Rican mother and a White Puerto Rican father. Her maternal grandmother was an Afro-Puerto Rican, while her grandfather was a Jamaican man. Both of her father’s parents were native to Puerto Rico. Originally from Harlem, as a child her family moved to Staten Island, in a predominantly white neighborhood. Growing up she was heavily engrossed in African American and Puerto Rican culture by both her parents and experienced a culture shock after moving from the predominantly black Harlem to a mostly white Staten Island. After moving to Staten Island she often had her identity and family origins questioned by classmates and people she interacted with. These experience would later inspire much of her work, especially her play Black Latina.

Roman was raised in an artistic household, performing in her first concert alongside her father at the Apollo Theater. As a child she often participated in plays, talent shows and was a clarinet player for her school band. Her great grandfather was a musician in the Duke Ellington Band while her uncle played alongside artist like Tito Puente, Santana and Marc Anthony.

Education
Roman attended the High School of Fashion Industries and graduated in 2000 with a diploma in Jewelry Design. She chose to attend high school in manhattan, in part, to avoid questions about her identity. She attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts between 2000 and 2002 where she studied acting. While at AADA, Roman also began studying for her Bachelor of Arts in 2001 at the College of Staten Island. She received her B.A. in Marketing and Management with a minor in Sociology in 2005 from the college.

Career
In 2006 Crystal Shaniece Roman starred in the short, musical film A Weapon Most Unusual! The film won the 2006 award for Best Musical Film Short at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival. Roman has performed in the NYC Strawberry One-Act Festival, the Producer’s Club, the Roy Arias Theater and the Manhattan Repertory Theater. In 2007 she joined the Latino Flavored Productions, a former theater company in Staten Island, where she performed in their National and Regional tours of the play Yo Soy Latina!(Original Off-Broadway and College Version) by Linda Nieves-Powell. She also performed with the company in the Ultimate Latina Theater Festival in 2008. In 2008 she operated as the spokesperson for the office equipment supplier company Mono Machines. That same year Roman played the role of Crystal in the film Tangle Eye Blues with the Moonshine Films company.

Shaniece Entertainment
Roman founded the production company Shaniece Entertainment in February 2008. In the company she acts as the CEO as well as a writer, producer and director for many of the productions. Under the production company she wrote, produced, directed and starred in the comedy sketch show Ay Que Funny at the National Comedy Theater. She has also produced documentaries, plays and short films such as the film Angela’s Glory under the company.

The Black Latina Movement
Best known for being the companies CEO, Crystal Shaniece Roman founded The Black Latina Movement, LLC in August 2008. The Black Latina Movement is a theatre and film production company based in Roman’s home city of New York. The purpose of the company is to create content that advances the African and Latino cultures while making the entertainment culturally and artistically richer. Roman was inspired to make the company because of the lack of knowledge around being a black Latina as well as being a Latina actress with few acting role opportunities. The companies leading play, Black Latina first premiered in April 2009 at the One Festival in NYC. Her first written theatrical piece, Black Latina, was originally a one-woman show starring Roman but has since developed into a multi character play. In the play she explores what it means to be a black Latina in the United States and the struggle with identity many black Latinas face.

The Color of love
The Color of love is another play under The Black Latina movement and in 2011 became both Roman and her company's first Off-broadway production. The play focuses on 4 different couples working through their perspective relationships and discovering the meaning of happiness. The Color of Love had 4 performances off-broadway in NYC at the Roy Arias Theater. It was later developed into a web series, The Color of Love Series and was nominated for the Atlanta Urban MediaMakers Film Festival.

Personal
Currently residing in New York City, Crystal Shaniece Roman is the mother of two boys. Roman is bilingual; fluent in both english and Spanish.