I sat down with Julie Caitlin Brown at Comic Con Africa 2025, and it felt less like an interview and more like a long overdue chat.
Julie is best known to sci-fi fans as Na’Toth in Babylon 5, with roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine also on her resume.
But her career stretches far beyond acting. She’s a singer, writer, talent manager, motivational speaker, and now an author working on her next book.
Julie Caitlin Brown at Comic Con Africa
At Comic Con Africa, Julie connected with fans as she shared stories. She made the stage feel intimate, and the conversations personal.
Our conversation felt personal, too. It was about refusing to stay in one’s lane, treating money as energy, and the importance of kindness in a world that often forgets it.
She carried the kind of calm energy that makes you feel like you’ve known her for years. Within minutes, the noise of the convention faded into the background, and the conversation turned real.
Breaking out of lanes
Julie didn’t mince words when I asked her about her refusal to stay in one lane.
“The term stay in your lane is usually a pejorative,” she said. “Women especially have been told to stay in their lane all the time.”
Raised in a traditional Catholic family with no industry connections, Julie still found her way onto Broadway, starred in TV shows, released albums, and became a motivational speaker.
“These are all things that evolved from wanting to connect,” she explained. For her, art has always been about giving voice to those who can’t speak.
Her advice for anyone wanting to carve their own path was direct: “If there’s something on your heart that you want to do or be, believe you can do it because you will find the instruction, you will bring the teacher to you that will help you find your way and don’t give up.”
“I’m 64 years old. It does not matter if it happened at 20 or 30. There’s no wrong age.”
Money as energy, art as flow
We also spoke about balance: how to make art while managing business and not lose your soul in the process.
Julie leaned back and smiled: “When you understand that money is just energy made manifest… one is hoarding, one is flowing.”
She explained the difference between chasing financial security and seeking financial freedom. For her, being true to your art means trusting that those who resonate with it will find you, and the money will follow.
It wasn’t always easy for her to charge for her work, something I can deeply, deeply relate to. “When I was younger, I felt really weird charging for it. I thought this is something I should just give away,” she admitted. But returning to workshops and speaking again, she reframed it.
“If I’m gonna be able to do this to the level I want to do it, it has to be sustainable financially, so I will be a joyful receiver.”
At one point, Julie leaned into something both spiritual and scientific. “We’re all vibration… Our cellular structure is the same as what creates worlds and stars.”
“Stardust to stardust, baby.”
It was one of those moments where the line between philosophy and fandom blurred, and it landed with weight. It’s a reminder that creativity, money, and even kindness are all just energy in different forms.
Authenticity, kindness, and compassion
When I brought up authenticity, Julie leaned in. For her, authenticity isn’t about bluntness or just saying whatever comes to mind. “You can always be kind. It’s not always appropriate to be right. Just be kind because you don’t know what they’re going through,” she said.
She shared a concept she came up with while writing her first book, Love First, the Beginning. She calls it being “compassionately amused.”
- Compassionate, because people often live in their own version of hell.
- Amused, because thankfully, that hell isn’t yours.
It’s her way of staying grounded, helping when asked, but not getting tangled in someone else’s storm.
It struck a chord. As a writer, I told her how long it took me to unlearn being told to “stay in my lane.” She nodded, reassuring me I’ve still got plenty of road ahead.
“You could be on the planet until you’re 90. What do you wanna do?”
Na’Toth and believing in yourself
Of course, we had to talk about Babylon 5. Julie reflected on her character Na’Toth and the lessons that still hold weight.
“There’s a scene where I’m asked, ‘What do you believe in?’ … And she [Na’Toth] says, ‘I believe in myself.’ That is the greatest gift women can give themselves: Believe in yourself and your worth.”
Thirty years later, that message still resonates. Julie tied it to a broader point about gender, identity, and balance.
“We are non-physical energy having a human experience. When we start to see our similarities rather than our differences, when we’re no longer other, we will start to heal and it will become a balanced society. The male can be male. The non-binary can sort of be in the middle of us. And the matriarchy can be the matriarchy. There’s a place for everyone.”
That balance (between art and business, compassion and authenticity, individual paths and shared humanity) carried through our entire conversation.
Before we wrapped up, she thanked me warmly, and I thanked her for sharing her insight so openly. Then, like any good Comic Con moment, we sealed it with a selfie.
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