Time to Shine: 3 Atlanta actors dish on making their creative mark in style

Erin

Top, $46, Zara at Lenox Square, zara.com
Jeans, $165, Sezane at Ponce City Market, sezane.com
Schutz shoes, $178, Bloomingdale’s at Lenox Square, bloomingdales.com
Earrings, $120, and bracelets, $100, Sezane at Ponce City Market, sezane.com

Nzinga

Dress, $325, Abbey Glass at Buckhead Village District, abbeyglass.com
Shoes and earrings, talent’s own; sleeves, stylist’s own.

Hunter

Atlanta has always been a style-forward city—and today, as the Hollywood of the South, there are more eyes on us than ever. Nationwide, the film industry is still finding its footing in the wake of the pandemic and seismic shifts in audience trends, but Atlanta’s scene continues to offer plenty of opportunities for local creatives. We chatted with three Atlanta-based actors and multihyphenates who have honed the art of self-expression, both on-screen and in the streets.

Nzinga Imani, Hunter Burke, and Erin Caitlin Collins caught up with our team to talk about their recent work, upcoming film projects, and what excites them about Atlanta’s fashion scene.

Scarf, $895, St. John at Lenox Square, stjohnknits.com
Bracelets, $125, Sezane at Ponce City Market, sezane.com
Earrings, talent’s own

Nzinga Imani
The triple threat with a fashion side biz

Atlanta native Nzinga Imani, who divides her time between fashion, music, and acting, embodies the do-it-all ethos of a true renaissance woman. On-screen, she can be seen in the BET+ series All the Queen’s Men, Tyler Perry’s Sistas, and the recent feature film Friend Zone. When she’s not shooting, she’s busy working in fashion: Imani is founder and CEO of plus-size online retail boutique Nimani and has designed sold-out collections for major lines, including Fashion to Figure.

“There are so few options for a plus-size person who is young, fun, and vibrating,” Imani says of her inspiration for creating Nimani. “Someone who isn’t trying to hide or cover up, and who doesn’t mind flaunting her curves.” In addition to running her boutique, Imani models for brands such as Ashley Stewart, FILA, and Lane Bryant.

Toccin dress, $495, Saks Fifth Avenue at Phipps Plaza, saks.com
Shoes, $120, Steve Madden at Lenox Square, stevemadden.com
Earrings, $65, bracelets, $125, Ring, $100, Sezane at Ponce City Market, sezane.com

To achieve this multivalent success, Imani credits her mix of creative backgrounds. In addition to dancing ballet and cheerleading, Imani grew up singing in choir and was loosely connected to the music industry, thanks to her close friendship with the children of songwriter and producer Dallas Austin. In high school, after a teacher suggested she explore musical theater, she discovered her talent for acting.

A professional actor for the past 15 years, Imani worked the independent-film and web-series circuit before breaking into network television. A pivotal moment came in 2021, when she landed the role of Dawn, a confident, body-positive character on All the Queen’s Men. “It was the first time people had seen a plus-size person in an intimate role,” says Imani.

That appearance opened the door to a relationship with Tyler Perry Studios. In 2022, Imani was cast in Perry’s dramedy Sistas as the outspoken Angela; her character then became a series regular on a spin-off, Zatima, which will release part two of its fourth season later this year on BET+. Last year, Imani made her feature film debut with the rom-com Friend Zone on the streaming network ALLBLK. She stars as Queenie, a charismatic artist who is navigating a potential romance with her lifelong best friend Marcel (Angelo Diaz).

Lapointe top, $1,890, Tootsie’s, tootsies.com
Skirt, $895, St. John at Lenox Square, stjohnknits.com
Bracelets, $125, Sezane at Ponce City Market, sezane.com
Shoes and earrings, talent’s own

Though she’s now established as an actor, Imani never fully left music behind. She’s been featured on several songs by Atlanta-based artists, including XL the Scholar and Queen of the Ratchet Chorus. In January, Imani released her first single: a R&B-influenced Afrobeat track, “Drown,” produced by Renzy808, who has worked with artists Ty Dolla $ign and Lil Gotit.

“I’m glad I’ve come now to a place where I can explore and try new things,” she says. “And pour into it from my own point of view in a fun, creative way.” In the future, she hopes to get back to her musical-theater roots by writing, producing, and starring in her own original musical.

Hunter Burke
The seasoned actor with a flair for fiction-writing

As the son of a politician and brother of a dancer, Hunter Burke jokes that it was inevitable he would go into entertainment. While growing up outside Lafayette, Louisiana, he was obsessed with movies and theater. “I tried going to every play that came to town,” he says. He majored in theater at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and graduated in 2007, ready to make the most of the film-industry boom unfolding in his home state.

Burke worked between Louisiana and Los Angeles for a few years, though he often traveled for productions in Georgia, which was enjoying its own burgeoning film industry. In 2019, Netflix cast him as the yoga teacher Trotter Vidhyarkorn in Sweet Magnolias, a romantic drama that follows three best friends (JoAnna Garcia Swisher, Brooke Elliott, and Heather Headley) in their small-town life in Serenity, South Carolina. The show—now in its fifth season—films in Atlanta, and in 2022, Burke made the move here full-time.

As Burke has gotten to know Atlanta, he’s discovered it has its own aesthetic. “There are many cultures coming together here that bring their own style, which speaks to a larger conversation about art,” he says. “Art gets channeled here into something distinct and unique, and I like that it’s always in a state of flux: The second it becomes homogeneous, it becomes boring.” He and his fiancée frequent thrift stores or menswear boutiques like Buck Mason at Ponce City Market, searching for looks inspired by Burke’s father, as well as his icon in fashion and film: Paul Newman. “I like how he keeps it simple and elegant,” Burke says.

When he’s not on set, Burke fuels his creativity by writing. Last year, he published his debut thriller novel, Of Flesh and Blood: The Untold Story of the Cajun Cannibal (Crooked Lane Books/Penguin Random House), cowritten with his childhood friend N.L. Lavin. It’s a natural extension of his curiosity. “Art, in any form—whether style, writing, or acting—demands an opinion,” he says. “The sooner artists understand that, the better. For the novel, I gave myself permission to create the art, do the work, and form my opinion.”

Acler dress, $435, Tootsie’s, toosties.com; jewelry, stylist’s own

Erin Caitlin Collins
The thrift-savvy actress lighting up her hometown

Atlanta has always been a town built on relationships. And for Erin Caitlin Collins, who grew up in DeKalb County, that’s been a key to her success. Since launching on the scene, the actor, producer, and writer has frequently worked with Performance Jam, an acting group that puts on free shows around Atlanta and is deeply embedded in the city’s creative scene.

Collins says that despite the perils facing the wider national industry, Atlanta’s indie film community is thriving. “You never know where a story is going to go and who is going to get funding,” she says. “There are voices here that demand to be heard and people with beautiful, funny, amazing stories to tell. I love Atlanta for that.”

The child of two creatives—her mom is a former news producer, her dad plays music—Collins had an art-filled childhood. “It influenced how I saw and interacted with the world,” she says. In elementary school, Collins auditioned for a school play and was bitten by the proverbial acting bug. She found herself drawn back to the medium in college, majoring in theater at Georgia State University.

Ganni top, $425, Tootsie’s, tootsies.com; Earrings, stylist’s own

Collins planned to pursue both film and stage work, but because live theater was on hold when she graduated in the spring of 2020, she started self-taping auditions for film productions at home. Film classes at the Boulevard Heights studio Drama Inc., she says, gave her the confidence to understand the process. Soon, she was landing roles in productions around town. A turn in the short horror film Night Shift at Ned’s earned her Best Actress awards at two film festivals.

This year, you can catch her in The Killing Cell, a horror film shot at the abandoned Rivers State Prison outside Milledgeville: “It was so scary filming there!” she says. The movie, written and produced by Dead Renegade Films, premiered at the Plaza Theatre in March. This fall, Collins will appear in Lyrebird, an independent alien-horror film directed by SCAD graduate Justin Suttles. Asked about her many horror credits, Collins says she believes genres sometimes pick actors, not the other way around—and she’s embraced it. “The horror genre has some of the most unique perspectives and characters,” she says. “The amount of imagination, originality, and creativity that goes into making a good horror film is astounding.”

BURU jacket, $278, and pants, $278, Dillard’s, dillards.com
Shoes, $65, Steve Madden at Lenox Square, stevemadden.com
Monshiro earrings, $220, Moosh, mooshshoppe.com
Gloves, stylist’s own

Still, she hasn’t abandoned her love of live theater: She and her friends are currently working on a production of Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane, a play about a dysfunctional Irish family in the 1990s.

As her career grows, Collins is thinking more about her identity as an actor and how her personal style reflects that. An avid thrifter, she enjoys shopping at Kudzu Antiques + Modern (“They have good vintage jewelry”) and Mother Lode for “edgier, Y2K-style stuff.” She prefers local thrift shops to corporate retail—and wherever she goes, she adds, her first stop is usually the shoe section. She may be gaining traction for her acting chops, but Collins says, “Style is the coolest medium to express yourself.”

This article appears in our April 2026 issue.