Danii Uke: Professional Makeup Artist | Host, The Girls That Get It Podcast

A start in fashion. A desire for personal growth. A change of scenery. A leap of faith. Four pitstops that led professional makeup artist Danii Uke to discover a world where her two passions merged. For Danii, it all began after college when she decided to pursue a professional makeup career in fashion. A decision that, over the next several years, allowed her to work with an array of models, fashion houses, and global brands. "(It was) very ‘Devil Wears Prada’," she highlights. Even with these incredible experiences, Danii knew something was missing. She wanted more. Eager to pursue this quest for the missing piece, Danii moved to

Grab Your Print Copies Here

Los Angeles and started working with celebrities and personal clients. A thrilling new adventure that posed its own set of challenges, but also empowered Danii more than ever to find just what set her soul on fire. "For me the goal has always been to make people feel beautiful inside and out," Danii shares as she reflects on the driving force through it all. It was after she worked with an athlete on a Gatorade campaign that all the pieces fell into place. That was it. That was the space she wanted to immerse herself in. A world that combined her love for beauty and sports. She hasn't looked back since. From her work with athletes in brand campaigns to her work during team media days, Danii has built an amazing personal brand throughout her time in the industry. As she looks to the future, she is eager to continue making an impact in the sports and beauty industries; while also providing fellow women in sports with a space to authentically express themselves. Incredible!

Take us all the way back! How did you get started in the industry?

So I was born in New York and I was raised in Baltimore. I went to the University of Maryland, College Park where I met two of my closest friends. I came out of college and decided that I wanted to work in fashion. I wanted to be a makeup artist in the fashion industry. So from 19 (years old) to about 27, that was my focus. I wanted to work with models. I wanted to work with high-end makeup artists. I wanted to work for fashion houses, work during Fashion Weeks, and all those things—very ‘Devil Wears Prada’ (*laughs*). After going into the pandemic, I decided that I wanted to make a shift. I think for me the goal has always been to make people feel beautiful inside and out. I've always had this dream of traveling and just talking to young girls and young women about inner beauty as well as ways that they can express that artistically or creatively on the outside while not necessarily leaning on outer beauty to gain them anything in this world. I felt like I was kind of stagnant in the fashion industry. There were no ladders to really grow. So I then moved to LA and I started working with celebrities, booking personal clients, and that was so much harder than working under an artist or working in a group setting with multiple artists that are in the (space). It is so much harder to do everything by yourself and I learned that the hard way. I was like, “I'm just going to go to LA.” After the pandemic too, there was just this shift in culture where people were willing to just take leaps of faith; and that was mine. As I was doing all of this, the people that I knew in the sports industry were becoming more prominent and prevalent. Women’s sports began to grow tremendously. So my first time working with an athlete was with Gatorade and it was so smooth. Gatorade was so amazing. The client didn't have to worry about paying me and I was like: “This is what I want.” (From there), I got an opportunity to work the inaugural season of Athletes Unlimited and that led me to being able to do media days for basketball teams in the WNBA. It led me to being able to work hand-in-hand with the WNBA in a lot of different projects that they were doing in 2022, and that kind of snowballed my career.

Looking back on that journey early on, how was that transition into the world of sports like for you? What were some challenges that you faced there?

Women outside of sports are more focused on themselves when they're getting their makeup done. I think that’s a good thing in the entertainment industry, where each individual—whether they're a model, actress or artist—are a brand and are responsible for everybody that’s around them. They have to look their best. They have to feel their best. They have to perform their best. The pressure of what they wanted delivered plus what a brand wanted delivered or what a director for a music video wanted delivered…the pressure from that was a lot. I feel like with athletes, athletes are very team-oriented. Even athletes that play sports where it's just them, like tennis or golf, they're still very team-oriented. They look at their brand as a team effort instead of it being just them and everybody else working towards just making them look their best. For them, it's about all of us looking our best. So the transition was simple because the experience was so much lighter and so much more like: “I’m willing to work with you.” I really wanted athletes to feel comfortable with me and be honest with me about what they wanted; and we worked to communicate that. I think that in the fashion industry, especially with models, they really know the lingo when it comes to makeup. They understand the lingo for makeup. They understand the lingo for wardrobe. They understand the lingo for film and photography. It's easy for them to be like: “This is what I'm usually used to. This is how I usually like things,” and communicate that very effectively. I think athletes struggle to communicate that (at times), but because I knew so many athletes—especially in the WNBA—they felt comfortable taking the time to learn that with me, taking the time to understand where I was coming from, and (me) taking the time to understand where they were coming from. I'm just really appreciative of that because I know a lot of artists don't get that opportunity. That allowed me to build off of what I already had from working in the previous industry, and cultivate a look that many of the athletes definitely appreciated.

Diving more into your work with athletes and building your personal brand in the sports industry, how did you get started with that process?

It was really a team effort. Even though I'm by myself, I think that the people within the industry who are also building a brand are so gracious and giving. One person that has really been impactful in my life is Arielle Chambers. I love Ari. We met when we were in college. She was a model when I first started and we actually met before we were pursuing this. I think she was modeling a little bit, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to be a lawyer or a makeup artist. Then, I kind of started leaning towards makeup. I really started to look into what I was studying and what I cared about; and I really deeply care about women and women empowerment. Ari cares about women and women empowerment, and her focus was always sports since we were in college. For me at first I was like, “Ah, they're already powerful (*laughs*). I want to talk to the women who are scared.” I was blessed to find this area where there was a little bit of unfamiliarity with beauty, skin care, and all of these different things. I would say it’s definitely changed in the last five years, but when I first started really paying attention to it and really diving deep, I could see that there was a bit of insecurity on the sports side and there was no real interest on the beauty side. I really just wanted to bridge that. Just asking my friends, asking Chloe Pavlech, asking Ari questions about how I could best utilize what I have in this space was (key). Both of those two have always told me that I'm needed and I'm important in this space. That has always encouraged me—even when I felt like: “What are we really doing?”—to keep going. That was a big thing. Then, talking to the athletes too and trying to understand what they need and what they want helped me get to this place. Honestly, I feel like I've just gotten to a place where not only am I capable of talking about what I've been building, but I'm also capable of building that platform up too because I've spent all these years really cultivating what it is to be a makeup artist in this space. You know, what that looks like on set and what that looks like for interviews. All those different things. So I would say that asking the people around me who have been successful how they were successful in their own specific area helped me (build) my brand.

Want to read more?

Subscribe to theballersmagazine.com to keep reading this exclusive post.

Subscribe Now