While some may only know her as the wife of legendary NBA played Carmelo Anthony, La La Anthony worked extra hard to immerse herself in the entertainment world since she was a teenager.
La La Anthony started out at a radio station in Atlanta, alongside famous rapper Ludacris. She worked her way up until scoring a role as a VJ and interviewer on MTV, before hosting various reality shows and acting in films and TV series. She married NBA star Carmelo Anthony in 2010, but the couple seemed to split in 2019.
Read on to find out more about La La’s origins, including how a fake ID basically started her whole career.
Radio Beginnings
Alani Nicole Anthony, now known as La La Anthony, was born in New York in Brooklyn in 1981. She went on to study communications at Howard University in Washington D.C. but eventually dropped out.
In a video posted on Fast Company’s Twitter page, La La explains the various jobs she had as a teen, and how she loved money from a young age.
“I was working at Baskin Robbins, I worked at a tattoo shop as a receptionist, I was doing telemarketing, I was just a person – a teenager – that liked money, didn’t have a lot of money, but liked money, so I was always looking for jobs to get money and be able to support myself.”
While still in high school, La La produced a fake ID to say that she was 18, when in reality she was 16 years old. She landed a job as an intern at a radio station in Georgia, which led to her role as a cohost with rapper and actor Ludacris.
She goes on to describe how the experience changed her life, especially since she was still in high school at the time.
As well as her lucky shot with the internship, La La is adamant about her hard work and that it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows when working her way to the top.
“It was life changing to be in high school and be on the radio, but it was a heavy schedule. There was some time where I would work 2am to 6am and get off and go right to school.”
She continued, “Hard work pays off. I always worked really hard, even as an intern, there was nothing that I wouldn’t do, I was workin’ for free, obviously, and just continued to grind and hope that someone would take notice and luckily someone did.”
Watch her full interview opening up about her early career days below:
With radio experience under her belt, La La was able to learn how to talk and present herself, which contributed greatly to her ability to work as an entertainment personality on various mediums – radio gave her the tools to grow.
At 19 years old, she went on to another radio show, this time in Los Angeles. She continued there until 2001 when she left to go to MTV.
MTV Fame
During her time on MTV, La La become one of the most prominent VJ’s for the network. VJ’s are video jockeys, which are otherwise known as media personalities.
She did interviews on her most popular show, Total Request Live, speaking with tons of A-list celebrities like Angelina Jolie, Will Smith, Tom Cruise, and Eminem.
Watch her interview Eminem and rapper 50 Cent in 2003:
Following her job at MTV, La La began hosting multiple reality shows both with MTV and separate from the network. These included several seasons of The Real World, Flavor of Love, and Real Chance of Love.
As she garnered fame as a must-have for reality TV, La La started to have a go at acting. She appeared on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit in 2013, a romantic comedy called Think Like a Man Too in 2014, and in a crime series titled Unforgettable in 2015.