SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Two years ago, Sacramento native Xavier Smalls was working at Sheikh Shoes inside of Arden Fair mall, low on money and frantic, thinking that his acting career, which he had invested so much in, was going down the drain.

Now, at 27, Smalls is playing a major role in Tyler Perry’s Netflix series “Beauty in Black,” one of the top trending Netflix shows in the United States and globally, according to the streaming service’s website.

He is cast in the drama as Angel, who is an acquaintance of main characters Kimmie and Rain, portrayed by Taylor Polidore Williams and Amber Reign Smith, respectively.

“If you have a burning desire to do something and you really think you could, don’t silence that voice,” Smalls said of his journey. “I’m living proof that if God tells you he’s got you, believe him, even if it looks rocky.”

Smalls describes himself as optimistic and exuberant. With an unwithered faith, he never gave up on his dreams.

He wants to be a trailblazer for others in pursuit of their own ambitions.

His advice?

“Don’t make excuses,” he said. “When there’s a will, there’s a way. If you really want it, you’ll figure it out.”

Smalls was born and raised in Sacramento, a proud product of Rancho Cordova’s Lincoln Village area.

He said he credits the diversity of his neighborhood — and Sacramento itself — for molding him, because he “got to come across so many different walks of life” and “go through different identity crises”.

Smalls is biracial — both Black and white — however, he said people have often assumed he is Mexican or Hispanic.

“I used to kind of hate that about myself and not be proud of that certain aspect of me so I would try to act in certain ways that I knew I wasn’t really like,” he said.

Smalls said he almost fell down the wrong path of acting as someone he’s not, before finding himself.

Considering what he learned from his experiences, he said his upbringing in Sacramento was “a blessing.”

“Now it’s a badge of honor that I wear that you can’t put a finger on what ethnicity I am because I could play so many different characters, so many different roles, as an actor,” Smalls said.

The perfect example is his character, Angel, in “Beauty in Black,” who happens to be Hispanic.

In high school, Smalls was a three-sport athlete attending West Campus, Rosemont and Foothill in North Highlands.

He was also a class clown at times, he said.

“I’ve always been kind of like a goofy dude in class, like I was always a good student, but I was always cracking jokes,” Smalls said. “So I’ve always been interested in (acting) and seeing myself being an entertainer, but I just never thought it’d be possible.”

Smalls hadn’t heard of many actors that came from Sacramento besides names like Deon Taylor, Keith Powers and LeVar Burton.

As far as making it a career, acting was something Smalls always wanted to do but wasn’t sure how.

Because he didn’t know the route to becoming an actor, Smalls attended Sacramento State where he initially majored in biology and minored in chemistry, with the idea of becoming an orthodontist.

However, Smalls said he “sucked” at science, especially chemistry. He felt like a failure. He changed his major to business and his minor to real estate. Realizing that he didn’t need a degree to sell houses, he contemplated dropping out of college.

Smalls was already a model for an agency in San Francisco, and said it was his mentor, Berry Accius, who suggested he give acting a serious go.

He made theater his minor and after a year of taking classes, Smalls said he realized that he wanted to pursue an acting career and changed his major to theater.

Smalls was never cast for plays at Sacramento State. He panicked because he didn’t have experience, but knew he could perform. He had to find a way to get some show time under his belt.

“I was like, ‘I gotta do theater. I gotta do these plays,’” Smalls said. “’And if Sac State ain’t messing with me, let me find somebody else who is.’”

Smalls enrolled in theater classes at Sacramento City College so that he could audition for plays. He landed multiple roles in Shakespeare productions.

His time at Sacramento City was a confidence booster not just because he was getting his fair share of roles, but also he found out that his favorite actress Jessica Chastain, who is also from Sacramento, went to Sacramento City.

After graduating from Sacramento State with a degree in theater, Smalls followed in the footsteps of people he admired, which meant an acting training program in Los Angeles or New York.

Right before graduation, Smalls found a two-year program in the William Esper Studio in New York City which teaches acting techniques such as the Meisner Technique. He applied and was accepted. Although his admission was delayed a year due to COVID-19, he officially began in fall 2021.

Smalls graduated from the program in summer 2023 and moved back to Sacramento with eventual plans to move to Los Angeles, but not without some hardship first.

“I went through a financial crisis,” Smalls said. “I didn’t have any money … man, it was tough. I would say, mentally, that was the lowest point in my life. I invested thousands of dollars in my acting school … here I am, in debt at 25 years old.”

Smalls, feeling lost, reached out to his mentor, Accius, who helped him get a job at the mall. It was a humbling experience for Smalls, who was back to driving a 1999 Toyota Corolla, working at a place he worked when he was 17.

He was at rock bottom until his agent in New York reached out in December 2023 with an audition for Tyler Perry’s “Madea’s Destination Wedding.”

He got word of the script at 4 p.m. on the West Coast, and his audition tape had to be submitted by 8 a.m. on the East Coast the next day.

He studied the script and by 10 p.m., he drove nearly an hour from his home in Roseville to his brother’s place in Elk Grove to set up and record the audition.

The role he auditioned for was for a character named Zavier. Smalls initially thought they just misspelled his name, placing a “Z” instead of an “X.” He pointed it out to his brother, who said, “Oh, that’s God! You’re going to get this one.”

After submitting his self-tape by the deadline, Smalls needed to wait only two days for his agent to call him and ask, “Are you ready to be a star?”

Smalls couldn’t believe he got the role. Everything his agent was telling him sounded like white noise, he said.

“As soon as I got off the phone, I got in the dirt, got on my knees, and I was just thanking God, thanking him, over and over,” Smalls said.

Smalls’ brief interaction with Perry was genuine, he said.

After filming the final scenes of “Madea’s Destination Wedding,” Perry asked Smalls if he’d just graduated from acting school.

Curious as to how he could tell, Smalls just responded, “yes.” He was left in shock when Perry congratulated him for landing the role in the movie and told him to stay in touch.

A month later, Smalls said he got a text that read, “call me when you can, Tyler Perry.” Smalls called immediately and Perry explained the concept for “Beauty in Black,” believing that Smalls would be a good fit for a role.

Smalls auditioned, and the rest is history.

Now, Smalls lives in a three-bedroom house with his wife just outside of Los Angeles in Santa Clarita, living his dream.

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