Laura has always been inspired to create change. Now based in Los Angeles, this creative producer is continually driven by a feeling she’s had since she was a little girl in her home state of Rhode Island, where she began dreaming her biggest dreams. Those imaginative hopes were fueled directly by hip-hop, a medium that made Laura feel like she could impact the world on a divine, foundational level. Growing up, she listened to the genre’s greats, like Nas and Jay-Z. She was most influenced by the late 2Pac and the Notorious B.I.G. — two figures who continue to illuminate and guide Laura’s path today.

While she’s deeply motivated by music, books like The Seat of the Soul, Conversations with God, The Tanning of America, and Spirit of an Outlaw have also pushed Laura toward her true calling. With hip-hop as her north star, Laura has crafted a career that’s deeply rooted in spirituality with a focus on personal and community development.

Laura earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Rhode Island, but upon graduating, she didn’t find opportunities that aligned with her true purpose. This set her on the path to begin creating the life she’s always known she was meant to live.

She broke into the industry in L.A., with roles at Chris Brown’s management company, BuVision, and the fashion brand Young & Reckless. After gaining hands-on experience in marketing, artist relations, and brand partnerships, Laura founded her own creative agency in 2016. Penny Lane Productions was launched with an event celebrating the life and legacy of the Notorious B.I.G. — a true, full-circle moment.

From that event forward, Laura expanded her portfolio to include clients like Mike Tyson, Louie XIII, and music influencers and labels like Dame Dash and Bad Boy. Through it all, Laura kept her mind and heart focused on the socially ambitious ideologies of 2Pac, who Laura considers her most powerful muse. It only made sense that she would end up creating her very own Thugz Mansion in Los Angeles, 2Pac’s homebase.

In collaboration with a cannabis client, Laura made her greatest creative vision come to fruition. Thugz Mansion sprouted from a pure idea to build spaces based on love and solidarity, where people can creatively express themselves outside of the traditional corporate structure. With this concept, Laura developed and cultivated an organic model where the power of celebrity and influence can be used to impact underserved and unheralded communities to ultimately change the world. Independently, she would use this energy to create the event series Roses, with the first edition honoring E.D.I Mean of the Outlawz.

With 2Pac and other revolutionaries like Nipsey Hussle in mind, Laura has positioned herself to flip the programming that has been ingrained in our society. By learning from and building on the information from the revolutionaries who came before her and touched her soul, Laura seeks to create experiences that not only help us change the way we see ourselves, but also how we see others and how we see the world.