Although she'd already had success as a model in both New York and Los Angeles, it wasn't until Reneé Wilson returned to her hometown of New Orleans that she got her big Hollywood break.

She was performing in a production of “Dreamgirls” when auditions were announced for the movie “Ray,” the biography of Ray Charles, which was being shot in New Orleans.

The movie company was looking for African-American singers to play the Raelettes, Charles' legendary backup group.

When her agent cautioned that she might be too light-skinned for the part, Wilson just told her: “You should send me (to the audition), because I'll get the part.”

Five auditions later, she was cast as Patricia Lyle, one of the original Raelettes. Wilson spent two and a half months working on the Oscar-winning film.

Although she did not have a large speaking role in the film, “I felt blessed for that to be my first film,” Wilson said in an interview at the Nevada City home of her in-laws, longtime residents and business people Mike and Nina Janowsky Snegg.

Wilson and Aaron Snegg were married in Big Sur Sept. 27.

“Crepe Covered Sidewalks”

When she got her first residual check from “Ray,” Wilson recalled she thought she could either buy a car — or make a documentary about the devastation Hurricane Katrina had visited upon her hometown of New Orleans.

The original money ran out years ago, but Wilson, a graduate of Tulane University with a bachelor of arts degree in communications, has persevered, raising money from grants and gifts and her own efforts.

This Thanksgiving weekend, she will perform at the Center for the Arts in Grass Valley to both debut her first CD, “Voodoo Queen,” and show the trailer for her New Orleans documentary, “Crepe-Covered Sidewalks,” which she is directing and co-producing.

Proceeds from the performance and CD sales will go to finish the editing of the film at a post-production studio in Los Angeles in January.

“I'm a perfectionist,” Wilson said, explaining that everything she does is to professional standards.

Even though it's been four years since the hurricane, Wilson remains convinced her documentary is still relevant. The film is about how middle-class people were affected. For instance, her family's home was not flooded, but it was filled with displaced friends and relatives.

“I'm going to put it out there regardless,” she vowed. She said she hopes to enlist the aid of big-name stars, such as Brad Pitt, who are still involved in the Katrina recovery effort.

Local connection

Although she was married just a few months ago and now lives in San Francisco, Wilson has had a connection with Grass Valley and Nevada City ever since she met her husband-to-be at an environmental conference in Petaluma in 2006.

Much of “Voodoo Queen” was recorded at the Station to Station multimedia production studio near Grass Valley. A number of local musicians contributed to the album, including Isaac James, Lee Bob Watson, David Torch, Dan Elkan, Marc Snegg and Eheran Hass.

“I'm excited,” Wilson said about her upcoming CD release party in Grass Valley. “I want to see what kind of voodoo I can conjure up on stage.”

Tom Durkin is a freelance writer based in Nevada City. For comments on this article, e-mail tkleist@theunion.com or call (530) 477-4230.