Life & Work with Up Late with Sha & Del

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sha & Del. Them and their team share their story with us below:

Sha & Del’s connection has been ordained. When Sha first moved to Jersey City, right outside of New York, she and Del’s common friend Eddie B encouraged them to connect with each other. Well, of course, they never did. Then one night when Del was playing a comedy club in Jersey, Sha arrived after Del had performed.

As Del walked around to sell her shirts, they struck up a conversation and shared an instant sisterhood. As they were wrapping the conversation, a light bulb went off that Eddie B had been encouraging them to connect. It was divine.

From there, the two performed on stages together, slew karaoke’s, and shot hilarious viral sketches. Wanting to take it a step further, they began a web series where they would do commentary on pop topics and hit the streets doing woman-on-the-streets interviews with celebrity comedians and singers.

The desire to have their own show burned in them. In 2014, they raised money and shot a pilot that they’d hoped to sell to a network.

After pitching to no avail, Sha & Del went back to the web doing the web series from remote locations yet uploading to the same channel to keep feeding their fans’ content. Sha & Del feel responsible for IG live as they would attempt to get on Facebook live and bring in another person but bandwidth at the time did not allow for success.

They claim they complained and Instagram heard them and “you’re welcome everyone”, they joke, “IG live was born!” But then they took a short break. Del jokes that she “put the series on hold to give Sha a chance to have some kids,” and Sha follows up with “I was only having those kids to give Del time to get settled in California.”

A birthday call to Sha would get the conversation brewing again and they went to doing IG lives every Monday – filling their fans in on the haps from the east & west coasts, chiming in on the hot topics, and finishing each episode with what they thought was their success for the week.

On Tuesdays, they would hit Facebook live to do celebrity interviews and bring in other comedians to discuss topics. Two shows a week for one year allowed Sha & Del to develop a pattern and format for their show would run on a bigger platform.

When Jamie Roberts invited Del to submit materials for a radio show on 108 Soul, Sha & Del knew they were ready.

“It’s amazing when you’ve been doing something so long how much you are being prepared for other opportunities without realizing it,” Del says, “We submitted, we kept going and we kept the faith,” Sha says. In June of 2021, Jamie texted these ladies to let them know that Up Late with Sha & Del had been chosen as a show they wanted on the platform. Woohoo! 10 years in the making.

Now, Up Late with Sha & Del still airs every Monday on IG live but now also, airs now every Sunday on 108 Soul radio station on iHeartRadio (www.108soul.com) at 10 pm ET/7 pm PT/9 pm CT. Yay for the win. Yay for keeping the faith. Yay for persistence. Yay for doing the work.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
So many obstacles and challenges we faced: money, connections, cameramen, etc.

One time, we brought our good friend out to film us interviewing Taraji P. Henson and Naturi Naughton at American Black Film Festival’s Red Carpet, and right after the interview, we realized the sound was never working. Lol.

That was still some great footage for our trailer. Another time, we had just gotten on the radio and our engineer had computer problems so the 3rd episode sounded horrible.

We worked through everything like champs. We esteem each other. We are Godly and we trust in the Lord. That’s how we know we will always have success.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Sha Hayes – Comedian, Actress, Host, Voice over Artist – Star of “Oh Gosnell” Play in New York Del Harrison – Comedian, Singer, Actress, Voice over Artist – Host of Let’s Talk Hair on FOX Soul

Both Sha & Del have a lucrative career in the arts, pursuing their passions via so many avenues: standup comedy, music, voice acting, television, film, theater, and radio. They each produce their own web series in addition to working together.

Sha hosts “Walks with God” – posting daily on IG (@ShaHayes) and Del, in addition to releasing music, hosts The Del Show where she also provides inspiration to her fans from various locations and sometimes, while she is cooking an amazing meal.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
On our vision board right now, we have “Up Late with Sha & Del is airing on ABC and pays Sha & Del 100K net each per episode.” We also have “Up Late with Sha & Del on the Oscars Red Carpet.”

These things are destined to happen. Habakkuk 2:2 says And the Lord told me: “Write the vision; make it plain…” Well, the vision is written.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.uplatetvshow.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uplatetvshow
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uplatetvshowfanpage
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/uplatetvshow
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/uplatewshadel

Image Credits
Up Late with Sha & Del