MBNYC

Crowned Miss Black New York Coed in November of 2016, Miss Ade-Salu is a native New Yorker and the first Nigerian-American to hold the state title. In New York, she attended the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts where music was and still is her first passion. She sharpened her skills in the school's rigorous certificate program while also attending the The Rosetta LeNoire Musical Theatre Academy under AMAS Musical Theatre Company and weekend coaching sessions with the NAACP's New York City Chapter ACT-SO program. 

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She later attended the University of Michigan -Ann Arbor to continue her music studies and hone her second passion: acting. At U of M, Mutiyat studied with the great American tenor George Shirley and was also mentored by the late soprano Shirley Verrett. Both challenged her to not only stretch her vocal range and imagination, but her concept of self. Her love for African-American theatre was developed by the late Glenda Dickerson and retired professor and playwright Charles "Oyamo" Gordon. She credits them with shaping her craft as an actor who not only pays attention to the characteristics of a person, but also the historical background of their circumstances.

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Miss Ade-Salu is the eldest of three siblings and the daughter of Mr. Rafee Ade-Salu, a civil engineer, and Mrs. Eunice Ade-Salu, a professional social worker and evangelist. Her family is of Yoruba descent and she is proud to call herself 1st generation Nigerian-American and African-American.

Throughout the year, Miss Ade-Salu upholds the three pillars of the Miss Black America Coed organization: Leadership, Education, and Community Service.  She is organizing a community walk-a-thon on MLK Day to support Harlem's women's shelters,  works as a teaching artist in a public school for challenged teenagers, and volunteers her time to teach elementary school students how to read on a weekly basis. She also makes time to visit low income or performing arts schools to guest lecture on her experience as an artist,  to warn about the effects of illegal drug use and the importance of math for future personal finance. These issues are deeply personal to her and thus her duty to inform a younger generation.

Miss Ade-Salu  is a professional writer, actress, vocalist, and audiobook narrator. She  is the recipient of the 2014 Audie Award and her audiobooks can be found on Audible.com. For 7 years, she has been a member of Actors Equity Association, the only professional union for stage actors in America.   For the schoolyear 2016-2017, she was one of two artists selected  by the We. APP Studio to be a Teaching Artist-in-Residence for the Seattle Public Schools System.  In 2016, she was also appointed Editor for Business and Innovation with ApplauseAfrica.com, a print and online magazine named "the EBONY of the new African Diaspora" by Huffington Post. Miss Ade-Salu lends her expertise from being the sole proprietor of her own company Vineyard Entertainment,  which houses all of her artistic contracts. On stage, she’s starred lead roles in Intiman Theatre Festival's  A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White and Sojourners as well as the University of Arkansas' Hedda Gabler and God of Carnage. She's also appeared in Horizon Repertory’s Benito Cereno directed by Woodie King, Jr., 2012’s Foreign Bodies written by slam-poet champion Eboni Hogan as part of Culture Project’s Women Centerstage Festival, and was an original founding member of the 1st Generation Nigerian Project from 2009-2010 at Labyrinth Theatre Company. Her film credits include Mother of George starring Danai Gurira, Blue Caprice starring Isaiah Washington, and the upcoming independents Parker’s Anchor and Clipped Wings They Do Fly starring Bill Duke and Chico DeBarge. Miss Ade-Salu is pursuing an MFA in Acting  and will continue her studies in the fall of 2017.

• 1998 Union Rotary Club Oratory Contest - Finalist

• 1998 ECWA Church Brooklyn Chapter Scholarship Award Winner

• 1999 Intermediate School 281 - Valedictorian

• 1999 Intermediate School 281 - Voted Most Likely to Succeed

• 2000 NAACP ACT-SO National Finalist- Dramatics

• 2000 NAACP ACT-SO New York City Gold Medalist-Dramatics

• 2000 NAACP ACT-SO New York City Bronze Medalist-Classical Music

• 2003 Bertelssman Music Foundation Honorable Mention

• 2003 ASCAP Music Foundation Scholarship Award in Honor of Whitney Houston

• 2003 City of New York - Honorable Citation

• 2003 NAACP ACT-SO National Finalist- Contemporary Music

• 2003 NAACP ACT-SO New York City Gold Medalist-Contemporary Music

• 2006 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance - University of Michigan University Choir

• 2007 University of Michigan Stockwell Hall Talent Show - 1st Place Winner

• 2011 Actors Equity Association Scholarship Award Winner

• 2014 Audio Publishers Association Audie Award Winner - Audiobook Narration

• 2015 AudioFile Magazine Earphones Award Winner - Audiobook Narration

• 2016 Southeastern Theatre Conference 26th Annual Symposium - Academic Presenter