Aug. 29, 2005, Messenger-Inquirer
Apollo grad creates Internet TV show
 

"Since I was a little girl, there are two things I have been passionate about: entertainment and health." Owensboro native Leah Guy will unveil the results of those two lifelong interests to the world Thursday with the premiere of her Internet television show "It's All About U."

The former high school athlete who became a vegetarian at 16 is the host,executive producer and writer of the show about holistic health and conscious living. It will be on the health-and-beauty Channel 2 of the 15-channel InterVision TV network (www.ivnet.tv) that will launch the same day.

New shows will premiere every Sunday starting Sept.11. They and other IvNet shows are free and will be translated into about 10 languages, said Guy, 33.

Her show will have "fast-paced, edgy" segments on a variety of topics, such as healthy parenting, food and nutrition, sex, the environment and holistic health, Guy said."The main mission is to bring education and information about the variety of options you have" to care for the mind and body, Guy said Thursday at the Freeman Avenue home of her father, Rick Guy. Her mother is Cheryl King of Old Cabin Road.

"It's fun. We laugh a lot," Leah Guy said. Studio segments of "It's All About U." will be shot in Red Bank, N.J., near New York City, which she will call home at least for the rest of this year as she shoots her show, she said.

The 1990 Apollo High School graduate sang in church musicals and played softball in middle and high school. She later took up tennis,  golf, in-line skating, dance, skiing and basketball. Even at 13 or 14, she paid attention to nutrition, Rick Guy said. "She has always been health conscious and exercise conscious," he said. "She's pretty independent-minded."

Leah Guy said she has traveled this summer visiting friends and auditioning in Orlando, Fla., Atlanta and Nashville, where she has shot country music videos. She has acted in small roles in TV shows "Charmed," "ER," and "Just Shoot Me" and in commercials.

Leah Guy began modeling at about age 18 in Birmingham, Ala., while attending college. She later earned a bachelor's degree in communications at the  University of Louisville to do broadcasting."I knew I didn't want to do news," she said. Entertainment better fit her "artsy, creative-thinker" personality, she said. "I want to make a positive change in peoples' lives," said Guy, who also is a certified massage therapist and nutrition counselor.

Leah Guy lived in Louisville for five years in the mid- to late-1990s and was managing a health food store when she got the idea for her show. The idea simmered for seven years as she returned to California to run a health food store, which put her closer to the entertainment industry around Los Angeles, she said. When she moved to New York looking for acting work, she shopped her idea around, including to InterVision when she applied for a host spot about three months ago."They loved it," she said. "They were looking for a (similar) show, actually."

Co-producer Jay Keally of IvNet liked her knowledge of holistic medicine, especially in these days of Medicare woes and health care costs."She's got a lot of energy," Keally said in a phone interview. "She never sleeps, and she's a hard worker." She put her "educational, informative" show together in only two months, he said. "She did quite a fine job putting it together the way she did," Keally said. They have agreed to do eight shows and will negotiate to do 24 more depending on the Web traffic for her show, he said.

Leah Guy said she loved the international reach of the new Internet network. Multi-language chat rooms will be accessible as her show is being broadcast, she said. "It's such a wide-open medium,"she said. "To be on the leading edge, that's very exciting to me. "It's like a dream, in a way, to have that much flexibility and opportunity."