You know that old gloomy adage, “accidents happen?” While this may be true, when you’re Ruba, accidents somehow turn to gold-paved avenues routed to success! Just recently having been picked up by TV Guide as a host for the network’s show called ‘Celebified,’ this young man was once a boy wonder who developed a body of work that decades old journalists could only wish for and all before completing high school! Kontrol had the opportunity to escape to Ruba’s World for quite a fascinating Q&A! Take a look!
Kontrol: Ruba! We’ve been watching your videos here in the office and we’re all wondering how someone so young has the portfolio of a vet! We have to know, how old (or young) are you?
Ruba: I just turned 20 and April. So, I guess that’s young.
Kontrol: Congratulations on your new gig with TV Guide Ruba! But you’ve been at this a long time with “Ruba’s World” and now “Celebified” how are you going to manage all this work?
Ruba: Thank you! Well, “Celebified” and “Ruba’s World” are my babies so it’s been really cool to see all these things come into fruition. I love pop-culture so much and to have my own platform on TV Guide’s ‘Celebified’ to do what I love is more than I can ask for. Honestly, it all remains to be seen how I’ll manage to all of these projects but I just know I’ll be working so hard!
Kontrol: You’ve been working hard for a while now! Can you walk us through what happened to get to this point – knowing that this is your calling and ultimately what you love and want to do?
Ruba: Honestly, it literally kind of unfolded right in front of me. Initially, as cliché as this may sound, I wanted to do modeling and acting and that’s where my heart and soul was. It all started when I was about fifteen and every summer my cousins would come over and we were bored because our parents were at work and we really didn’t have anything to do. So one day we got the video camera and just started running around the neighborhood and taping ourselves doing silly stuff. One day we were filming, and we thought ‘hey, let’s do a talk show’ naturally, I was the host and my friends and cousins were my crazy, wacky guests. After we watched it, we said ‘let’s put it up on this new website called YouTube’ and YouTube was fairly new at the time and we ended up with 300,000 views after like a week! I’m thinking ‘what, is this real? Are people really watching this?’ From there we started getting calls from people’s publicist and managers asking if I would interview their clients. After that it was kind of like a domino effect, I started Ruba’s world and I had the opportunity to interview major A-listers and so many different people and then it just kind of catapulted into Celebrified.
Kontrol: It’s usually standard practice for a recent high school grad to go to college, did you skip that idea all together and do your own thing or are you in school now?
Ruba: I actually got accepted to Cal Arts for modern dance. I graduated from a high school of performing arts and I studied dance there.
Kontrol: Really? How’d you get into dance?
Ruba: Well, it was another accident – how I got into dance. I missed the auditions for the acting program, and so my counselor asked me if I could dance and was like ‘eh, kind of.’ I really didn’t want to do it because I didn’t want to be in tights and ballet slippers or anything like that but finally I thought ‘sure, why not? I’ll try it.” I began to study modern dance and I absolutely loved it and eventually got accepted into the Cal Arts dance program. However, they kind of scared me at orientation. They didn’t really seem to condone any sort of extracurricular activities outside of the dance program there and I wasn’t willing to put my work aside.
Kontrol: So, that was a firm “no” then?
Ruba: I was like ‘absolutely not.’ I decided not to go to Cal arts and pretty much knew that I was going to really hit the track running with my interviews and I’m happy I did. At first, I wasn’t Sure that I did the right thing or make the right decision but my friends that are just finishing college or suffered an injury and can’t dance anymore are literally starting from ground zero or don’t know what they’re going to do. So, I’m I’m really happy with the decision that I made to pursue what I do best!
Kontrol: Did you have the support of your family to not go to college?
Ruba: Yes I did! I don’t know if many people know this, but my aunt and uncle are Shanice and Flex Alexander so all of my family is art focused in that sense and they totally supported me! They support me in everything that I do and I’m so grateful for that.
Kontrol: Do you ever find yourself starstruck?
Ruba: [Laughs] I try not to be but after you do this so many times and you do it over and over and over again, it becomes more clear that they’re just people.
Kontrol: Every person’s got that celebrity that they would just freeze in front of, who is it for you?
Ruba: Hmmm, I would say JoJo. But it’s so strange because I finally got a chance to interview her and I fell in love and it’s kind of cool in a sense that we communicate and stay in touch now.
Kontrol: What you do seems fun and all but there’s got to be something that you find difficult about the industry and working within it, what is it for you?
Ruba: Well, typically when we have a long work day and I have to interview upwards of five or six people it’s literally like speed dating! And I literally can’t my all in these interviews and it’s an exchange of energy. So by the end of the day I’m done, Ruba is tapped out!
Kontrol: So we have to know, what’s next for you? What are you going to go from here?
Ruba: I wish I could tell you more about the TV Guide partnership but what I can tell you is that within the next couple months of my interviews are going to be distributed through TV Guide and other outlets. I’m really happy where I am right now and as accidental as my fate has been, I really can’t say what the future holds for me … I just want it to be bright!
