For years, Maia Campbell has been treated like a pop-culture footnote instead of the fully formed artist she’s always been.
But during a recent appearance on the 85 South Comedy Show, the South Central star pulled back the curtain on a chapter of her life that rarely gets discussed—including the time she lived with powerhouse producer Dallas Austin while he managed her career.
“I had a record deal, and I used to live with Dallas Austin,” Campbell told hosts Karlous Miller, DC Young Fly, and Clayton English. “Shout out to Dallas.”
The revelation came as Campbell reflected on her years moving between Los Angeles and Atlanta, where her career expanded beyond acting into music and international creative work.
According to Campbell, Austin played a hands-on role in shaping her trajectory during that period, carefully guarding her career while opening doors far outside the U.S. “He was really protective and careful with my career at the time,” she said. “He took me all the way to South America.”
Campbell explained that the work wasn’t about celebrity appearances or luxury travel—it was about building artists and culture. She recalled collaborating with musicians in cities like Santiago, Chile, and Buenos Aires, working with performers who wanted to channel the influence of American Black music while reaching their own audiences.
“We were working with artists in other countries that were speaking Spanish, but they wanted that sound,” she said. “They wanted to be like American Black, talented rappers and singers.”
The conversation reframed Campbell as someone who was deeply embedded in the music world at a pivotal time—learning the business from the inside while still navigating fame at a young age. She also connected that era to the broader arc of her life, including the mental health challenges that surfaced in the early 2000s.
“I started to suffer from bipolar disorder in the early 2000s,” Campbell said plainly. “It only made me stronger in a way, because I had to speak about being a survivor of mental illness—especially minority mental illness.”
Now sober and focused on rebuilding, Campbell says she’s writing, studying theater, and reclaiming her narrative on her own terms. “People don’t really know the full story. But I was there. I was working. And I was really doing it,” she said.