Hot Bench’s Tanya Acker makes her case to Us. Read on to learn 25 things about the judge — including who her dream dinner guests would be, the craziest thing she’s ever done and her celebrity hero.
1. I could eat sushi every day.
2. If I had to describe myself in three words, they’d be determined, optimistic and interested.
3. My personal mantra is: Decide and do.
4. I launched my podcast, “The Tanya Acker Show,” because I have a lot of questions that need answers.
5. I love seeing ’70s fitted shirts and 1920s deco prints come back. There are some fabulous go-go boots in my closet.
6. My athletic pipe dream is to be a competitive horseback rider.
7. I once let a snake wrap itself around me in Bali. Don’t ask!
8. I read the Bible in the morning to stay positive.
9. I’d love to narrate a nature documentary.
10. My parents’ best advice was to remember that I’m in charge of my own mind. If you want something to happen, you have to believe that it will.
11. I played a female lead in Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors when I was in sixth grade.
12. If I hadn’t gone into law, I would’ve been an English professor or a political reporter, or both.
13. The craziest thing I’ve ever done is go skydiving.
14. My life summed up in a hashtag would be #IDidWhatISaidIWould.
15. I’m obsessed with The Handmaid’s Tale. I have weird dreams afterward.
16. My celebrity hero is Marsai Martin. She’s not just prodigiously talented, but she’s also an incredible role model for young women.
17. One of my favorite people in history is Robert Smalls. He was an enslaved African-American who commandeered a Confederate battleship and delivered it to the Union army.
18. Disneyland is one of my favorite places in the world.
19. My dream dinner party guests are Madam C.J. Walker, an African-American who at the time of her death was the wealthiest self-made woman; Hatshepsut, one of the first Egyptian female pharaohs; and George Washington.
20. The last time I belly-laughed was watching the live All in the Family and The Jeffersons specials.
21. The hardest lesson I’ve had to learn is that being kind and playing fair aren’t always reciprocated, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to be kind and play fair anyway.
22. I’m a karaoke master of 1980s hits.
23. I love workouts with my trainer, Jeanette Jenkins, because they’re a combo of going to the playground and training for war. And then I do Gyrotonic with Christina Stroh to balance it all out.
24. I once had a piano recital and forgot the music, so I just banged out some nonsense. Let’s just say I wasn’t a prodigy.
25. I’m rereading 1776 [by David McCullough] to remind myself how uncertain America’s beginnings were. We can’t take anything for granted.
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