biography

BIOGRAPHY...
DIRECTING & DEF JAM
Visionary Director, Brand Owner/Designer,
Party Producer, and Creative Force. This is
Vashtie Kola, or as she is often called
"Downtown's Sweetheart”. With a friendly
demeanor and uncanny ability in bridging the
gap between underground cool and industry
mainstream, Vashtie can take a meeting with
cigar chomping execs and chill with graffiti
kids on the streets of the Lower East Side.
Born and raised in Albany, New York - Vashtie
is the youngest of three children and the first in
her Trinidadian immigrant family to be born in
America. Vashtie would be reborn in New York
City in 1999.
Her sights were set on the film world as she attended The School Of Visual Arts in Manhattan to
study directing/cinematography. Upon graduation in 2005, she was signed to Box Fresh Pictures
as a Director alongside Anthony Mandler. Many of her first videos were done with this company,
including videos for artists such as Beans, J-Status feat. Rihanna and Tony Hussle. At the same time,
she was writing music video treatments for established directors like Mandler. One of her more notable
video concepts went to Common's video "Testify" which starred Taraji P. Henson and Wood Harris.
While Vashtie was focused on her directing career, she was also working on other collaborative and
creative projects. In 2005, she guest styled and modeled for the clothing line Billionaire Boys Club and
was later featured as one of the new faces for NIKEʼs “TECH PACK” campaign which highlighted cool,
up & coming artists around the world.
In 2006, she was asked to re-vamp the Creative Dept. at Island/Def Jam as Director of Creative
Services. Antonio “LA" Reid, President of Def Jam, said she would be "the one to keep the building
cool, someone in tune with downtown cool and pop mainstream”. After a year, the corporate work
environment took its toll on Vashtie. She found her creative expression was stifled and in 2007 she left
her position at Def Jam to once again pursue her directing career.