In the spring of 2026, Ashante PT Stokes published a 43-page Christian coloring book for children, and it climbed to No. 1 on Amazon. He had, by that point, recorded a studio gospel album, run sprints in the Mid-American Conference, appeared in two major studio films, and operated his own production company for over a decade.
Good News: My Coloring Book, available on Amazon, reached the top position in the platform’s Religion & Spirituality Manga category according to its bestseller rankings. The paperback pairs Bible verses from Romans, Psalms, Isaiah, Luke, and other books of Scripture with illustrated scenes designed to be colored in by readers ages four through ten. It is 43 pages and sells for $9.99.
Stokes was born in Atlanta. He sang as a youth chanter at Wheat Street Baptist Church and played hand bells at Hillside Presbyterian Church. He spent part of his early childhood with his paternal grandparents in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, then finished high school in Middletown, Connecticut, where he competed in track at the USATF Youth level, reaching the Junior Olympics. He went on to run as a sprinter for Ohio University in the Mid-American Conference and graduated with a marketing degree, minoring in finance and sports administration.
The professional creative career was years away still. In 2010, he entered the Gospel Music Association’s Immerse competition and advanced to the semifinal round. He trained with Maria Clark, a principal operatic soprano, as his vocal coach.
January 25, 2013, was his first live performance under the name PT The Gospel Spitter, at Mark SQuared in Tucker, Georgia. That same year he founded Serving the Peace, his label and production company. He has served as executive director since.
His debut studio album, Raise Up, was recorded in 2014. Two singles, “Understanding God” and “Salvation RMX,” became the subjects of a music mini-film deal between Serving the Peace and StewArt Media Studios. Both screened to limited audiences in 2015. “Salvation RMX” was an official selection of the Gwinnett Center International Film Festival that August, where it won the Audience Choice award, and it ran in the top three on a Christian Hip Hop streaming television channel in the closing months of that year and into 2016. The Independent Artist Christian Music Association named Stokes New Urban Hip Hop Artist of the Year on July 31, 2016.
Acting had already entered the picture. A mentor in late 2013 urged him to audition for a small role in the indie film Burning Bridges. The casting director steered him toward a larger supporting part, and Stokes was cast as Angelo, an attorney central to the film’s main plot twist. In March 2014, he picked up an uncredited role as a detective in Taken 3. By August of that year he was on set for Ant-Man, playing a prison officer who comes to Paul Rudd’s character’s aid.
Screen and voice work continued through 2015 and beyond. He voiced a character in Remedy Entertainment and Microsoft Studios’ time-bending video game Quantum Break, appeared in TV One’s Born Again Virgin, and played Dwight in the Bounce TV church drama Saints & Sinners, a barber whose relationship with actor JD Williams’s character runs through the show. More recently, he produced SfTK, a SAG-AFTRA feature that Serving the Peace says was an official selection of the New York Movie Awards.
What each of these formats has in common is the same underlying material. Stokes’s gospel work has always centered on salvation, Scripture, and faith in active expression. Acting brought that sensibility into stories made by others. The coloring book directs it toward an audience that can barely read.
Good News: My Coloring Book features illustrated scenes ranging from praise and worship to depictions of the Gospel message, each paired with a selected Bible verse. Per the book’s description on Amazon, it is designed for Sunday school settings, quiet time, homeschooling, and family devotion, and presents the coloring format as a way for children to engage with Scripture actively.
The No. 1 ranking in its Amazon category arrived weeks after the April 20 launch.
