Lori Harvey likes to confer with herself within the third particular person. “She is shifting,” she says when working by means of her day by day schedule, which incorporates enterprise conferences for 2 firms, interviews, performing courses, and making ready for vogue month in London, Paris, and Milan. “She will get sizzling,” she says when explaining why she retains a Louis Vuitton fan in her bag always. “She was very hungover,” she says when describing the rationale she wore a last-minute pair of sun shades on a crimson carpet in Cannes.
It is smart why Harvey, the daughter of comic Steve Harvey and vogue entrepreneur Melanie Harvey, would consider herself as one other particular person. She’s achieved a lot within the 27 years of her life that it’s nearly unfathomable. At 14, she was on the observe to grow to be an expert equestrian rider. When a again damage derailed her equestrian profession at 18, she pivoted to modeling and made her official runway debut in 2017 for Dolce & Gabbana. Her profession continued with adverts for manufacturers like Michael Kors, Valentino, and Burberry and spreads for magazines like Vogue, W, and Harper’s Bazaar earlier than the launch of her first firm, SKN by LH, in 2021. Two years later, Harvey began her second enterprise, a swimwear model named Yevrah (her final title spelled backward), impressed by the envious Euro summer time holidays she’s grow to be synonymous with on her Instagram.
Now, at 27, Harvey simply made her first main on-screen debut in Peacock’s new critically acclaimed drama, Combat Evening: The Million Greenback Heist, based mostly on an armed theft of greater than $1 million of stolen valuables at a celebration in Atlanta the evening of Muhammad Ali’s historic comeback combat in 1970. Regardless of what haters might imagine, Harvey stays booked and busy. “I really feel like the most important false impression about me is that I don’t work,” she says. “However no, she’s a working gal. She works very laborious.”
I’ve positively gotten a leg up and had doorways been open for me due to my dad, however I needed to put the work in once I acquired there.
This false impression is why it was vital for Harvey to audition like anybody else for her function in Combat Evening. Although Harvey went to theater camp as a child and had a one-line function within the sitcom The Recreation as an adolescent, it wasn’t till the beginning of 2024, when she made it her New Yr’s decision to do one thing that pushed her outdoors of her consolation zone, that she formally made the soar to pursue performing professionally. “There was one thing holding me again. I’m a perfectionist, so I by no means need to do something except I do know it’s going to be superb out of the gate,” she says. “However going into the brand new yr, I used to be in an area the place I used to be like, ‘You already know what? I’m gonna do all the things that makes me uncomfortable.’ Since you don’t develop once you’re comfy. You develop once you’re uncomfortable.”
The timing labored out. Round that very same time, her supervisor heard Peacock was casting for Combat Evening, a real crime collection that includes a who’s who of Hollywood together with Kevin Hart, Taraji P. Henson, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle, and Terrence Howard. “When you hear that solid, it’s a no brainer,” Harvey says.
Her group managed to get her an audition however Harvey knew that she couldn’t simply coast on her fame to get her the half—nor did she need to. “I wish to work for and earn all the things I’ve. I don’t wish to have something handed to me,” she says. Even earlier than Combat Evening got here round, Harvey had already been working with an performing coach because the begin of the yr. When she acquired the audition, she upped her hours together with her coach considerably, perfecting all the things from how she talked to how she stood to the way in which her face appeared, earlier than she sat in a room with dozens of different actresses ready to learn for a similar half. Harvey bombed her first audition. “I used to be terrified, and I did completely horrible,” she says.
All people ought to really feel like they’re that lady
However hope wasn’t misplaced. The casting administrators had been impressed sufficient by Harvey’s efficiency that they known as her in for an additional function: Lola Folana, an actual singer and Broadway actress who was dubbed certainly one of Black Hollywood’s it women within the ‘70s. To arrange, Harvey watched countless movies, interviews and films Folana had been in to check her eccentricities earlier than she stepped again into the audition room for a second shot. This time, she nailed it. “I used to be strolling round my kitchen when my supervisor known as me and was like, ‘Guess what? You bought it,’” Harvey recollects. “It took a second for it to register as a result of I used to be like, ‘Wait, is that this actually occurring? Is that this actual?’”
Whereas Harvey by no means met the true Folana, who’s now 82 and has principally stayed out of the highlight since her retirement, she acknowledges the affect Folana had on future generations of actors like her. “I beloved how assured she was. She was actually a badass and was simply that lady throughout that period. I hope I did her justice,” Harvey says. Folana’s confidence can be what Harvey noticed essentially the most about her in herself. “As I’m getting older and extra assured in who I’m, I positively relate to her on that degree,” she says. “I feel I’m that lady. I feel everyone ought to really feel like they’re that lady.”
Together with being her first function, Combat Evening additionally holds a particular place in Harvey’s coronary heart for an additional cause. The collection is ready in Atlanta and tells the story of how the town, as soon as a railroad city, turned the “Black mecca” of america. Harvey was born in Memphis however grew up in Atlanta, the place she spent most of her childhood because the youngest of seven youngsters. Her mother and father nonetheless reside there, so when she confirmed up at her household’s home days earlier than manufacturing began on Combat Evening, her dad, Steve Harvey, was stunned to study she had begun performing—not to mention booked her first TV present.
“It truthfully wasn’t even intentional not telling him. We’re simply so busy. We’re all the time in numerous time zones. I don’t even suppose I do know the place he’s proper now. He may very well be in Africa,” Harvey jokes. “After I acquired residence, he was like, ‘What are you right here for?’ I used to be like, ‘Oh, I’m filming.’ He’s like, ‘Filming what?’ It didn’t register to him, whilst I used to be saying it. In fact, as soon as I instructed him the solid, he was like, ‘This can be a huge deal. You bought to focus. You bought to lock in. I’m so pleased with you, but it surely’s work time now.’ I used to be like, ‘Oh, I do know I’ve been working. Don’t fear.’”
However simply because Harvey grew up round Hollywood doesn’t imply she didn’t have nervousness the primary time she stepped onto the set of Combat Evening. In any case, certainly one of her first scenes was with the Samuel L. Jackson, a household pal who she affectionately knew as Uncle Sam, however wanted to view because the “Black Godfather” of New York’s legal underworld. “Being with him in a piece setting was very nerve-wracking, clearly, as a result of he’s a legend. I simply needed to do an excellent job and impress him,” Harvey says. “He could be tremendous encouraging. He could be like, ‘That was it! That was the one! Now you’re getting comfy. You’re feeling it now.’ That helped me loosen up.”
With the household she grew up in, Harvey is conscious of the impact her final title had on the place she is in her profession. However that doesn’t negate the work that she put in to remain there. “There are positively benefits to it. Anyone who says there aren’t is both delusional or very tone deaf. I’ve positively had benefits. I’m not blind to that,” she says. “I’m extraordinarily grateful and appreciative for all the benefits I’ve had. However simply because you will have it simpler to get within the door, doesn’t imply that it is possible for you to to remain within the door simply due to who your mother and father are. You must really put the time and put the work in and be good at no matter it’s you’re doing. I’ve positively gotten a leg up and had doorways been open for me due to my dad, however I needed to put the work in once I acquired there.”
Harvey can be pleased with her father. She by no means thought of dropping his final title to distance herself from him in Hollywood, and he or she even named Yevrah, her swimwear model, after their shared final title backward. Her older brother, Jason Harvey, used the title first for a now-defunct footwear firm earlier than she requested for his permission to maintain the legacy going with Yevrah.
Harvey launched Yevrah with Revolve in 2023. The model was certainly one of Revolve’s most talked-about swimwear partnerships of the yr and has been worn by celebrities like Normani, Winnie Harlow, and Justine Skye. Two years later, over Labor Day weekend 2024, Harvey dropped her second line for Yevrah. This time round, although, Harvey absolutely operated the model on her personal through Yevrah’s new web site, yevrahswim.com.
You’re anticipated to be very, very tall and really, very skinny. I positively was self aware about it once I first began, as a result of I’m not a standard mannequin.
“Once we initially launched, I needed to launch it with Revolve. They’ve such an unimaginable infrastructure that they’ve constructed,” she says. “I needed Yevrah to be part of their model as to assist advertise, get eyes on it, and be of their orbit of their clientele house. As soon as we did that, and it was very, very profitable, I knew I needed to launch my very own web site. It was actually all about timing.”
Although Yevrah has a brand new residence and recent designs, it’s nonetheless dedicated to the identical values Harvey had when she first got here up with the concept for the corporate years in the past. A kind of values was dimension inclusivity—Yevrah’s sizes vary from XS to XXL—one thing vital to Harvey after spending years as a mannequin and struggling to suit into pattern sizes. “I completely felt stress to be a sure dimension, particularly once I first began,” she says. “While you’re backstage they usually’re becoming you, all the things is pattern dimension. You’re anticipated to be very, very tall and really, very skinny. I’ll be trustworthy, I positively was self-conscious about it once I first began, as a result of I’m not a standard mannequin. When it got here to growing my manufacturers, I used to be like, ‘OK, inclusivity is primary on my listing.’”
A swimwear model can be a far cry from what Harvey thought she could be doing as a child. A self-described tomboy, her outfits rotated between two seems: a saggy polo with saggy shorts or a saggy T-shirt with saggy pants. It wasn’t till her mother introduced her to her first vogue week present at 12 years outdated that she was formally bit by the style bug that led to her profession now. “I beloved the power and the artistry behind it,” she says. “Then it was, ‘I need the attire. I need the little heels. I need the little purses. I need all the things.’”
Because the proprietor of two manufacturers—her skincare model, SKN by LH, offered out inside 48 hours of its launch—Harvey additionally dispels the stereotype that she was simply one other superstar who slapped her title on an organization. “I’m actually the model. Every part runs and flows by means of me,” she says. “I deal with all of the inventive, product growth, design—you title it, all the things from curating the Instagram all the way down to the content material of the shoots. Let’s clear that false impression up. She is closely concerned. She is the model.”
Even with two thriving firms and a burgeoning performing profession, Harvey nonetheless has an extended listing of targets she needs to realize. For starters, she’d wish to launch her personal perfume and clothes line. She’d additionally wish to star in a comedy. In any case, humor does run in her household. “I feel I’m fairly hilarious, so I’d like to showcase that,” she says. What’s off the desk is stand-up. She additionally doesn’t see herself performing alongside her father. “I don’t suppose he’s performing anymore. I feel he’s achieved with that,” she says. “I’d be shocked if he did one other performing function as a result of he’s beginning to wind down. My dad is older. I instructed him, ‘I offer you two extra years tops, and I feel you’re gonna retire.’ I feel I missed that window.”
Whereas Harvey teases that she has one other thrilling performing undertaking within the works, she assures it’s not a job in her dad’s upcoming biopic, which she joked with E! Information on the Combat Evening’s crimson carpet in September that she needed to play herself in. “I used to be joking. When the biopic is ready, I don’t suppose I used to be born but. I feel it’s simply him when he was youthful. If I learn it accurately, I don’t suppose any of us might be in it. I feel it’ll simply be based mostly on him,” she says.
The week after her cowl shoot with StyleCaster, Harvey flew to New York Metropolis for the premiere of Combat Evening and an look on the TODAY present. She was solely there for a sizzling second earlier than returning to her residence in Los Angeles for a fast break earlier than jetting off once more to Milan, London, and Paris for a month of vogue weeks. In between then, she has conferences for her two firms and remains to be in common performing classes to excellent her craft.
Together with her schedule continuously on the go, Harvey understands how her life can come throughout on the skin. However she assures you, she’s clocked in. “Folks suppose my life is only one lengthy trip,” she says. “I attempt to take it as a praise, as a result of I’m like, ‘OK, I assume meaning I make it look straightforward.’” When requested if that preconceived notion ever bothers her, she pauses earlier than casting the concept away. “For a second, however then I acquired over it as a result of I used to be like, ‘Woman, you’re employed your butt off,’” she says. “Let the work converse for itself.”
Photographer: Michael Buckner
Artwork Director: Sasha Purdy
Manufacturing Supervisor: Roya Backlund
Stylist: Jill Jacobs Studio
Make-up: Leah Darcy with Infinity Artistic Company
Hair: Ray Christopher with The Wall Group
Pictures Assistant: River Callaway
Styling Assistants: Kassidy Taylor, Jazzy Carrillo