Brett Brooks | Peoria, Illinois

Brett Brooks is the founder and owner of Bee Squared Films and Peoria’s Miss Juneteenth Beauty Pageant Competition. Having dreamt of being an award-winning actress, TV meteorologist, author, and filmmaker, Brooks has carved a unique path from journalism to filmmaking and fully embraces her role as content creator, model, actor, and filmmaker. She has produced a number of short films and received the 2023 Illinois Broadcasters Award for Best Multicultural Reach for her 15-part series about a woman who lived and died in Peoria, Nance Legins-Costly, who worked alongside Abraham Lincoln fighting for her freedom through the Illinois State Supreme Court. Brooks is currently producing a documentary about David Strother, the first black man in Illinois to vote as a result of the 15^th amendment.

Brooks views her role as journalist as “an act of community service and a way to give back by showcasing the good happening in Peoria’s Black and Brown communities.” During her tenure, she covered three elections, the Bryan Tornado, two life-changing organ donations, the death of musician Best Kept, a mass shooting, the boxing community, Illinois Department of Public Health declaring racism as a public health crisis, Black maternal mortality, the Peoria Central High Lions’ historic run for the IHSA State Football Championship, the Crown Act and the TikTok ban to name a few. For Brooks, a great leader has “ambition, confidence, tenacity, and a healthy dash of optimistic delusion.” These traits have helped her face challenges in her career such as microaggressions and imposter syndrome.

Brooks mentored middle and elementary school students through Mayor Rita Ali’s Role Model Project, founded the Miss Juneteenth Beauty Pageant Competition (entering its third year this June), and as a four-time Miss Illinois titleholder herself, authored “The Book of Beauty,” a guide to mentor and inspire new pageant contestants.

Brooks developed her own nonprofit, Bee XtraOrdinary, in order to help kids afford the extracurricular activities at their schools. Having worked for money to compete in pageants in high school, Brooks understands that investing in children’s passions and hobbies will have a significant impact on each student’s life and the pursuit of their dreams.

On top of her own projects, accomplishments, and investments in the community, Brooks also works as a background actor in multiple, popular Chicago-based shows such as The Chi, Chicago Fire, Chicago PD and Chicago Med, and uses her FAA Drone Pilot certification to showcase the beauty of the state of Illinois.