Trivia: Is of African-American and Guyanese descent.Co-starred in the sitcom A Different World from 1987 to 1992, playing Jaleesa Vinson.Composed A Different World's theme song with Bill Cosby and Stu Gardner.Played Deloris Van Cartier, the Whoopi Goldberg role, in Peter Schneider's Sister Act the Musical before its Broadway run.Has lent her voice to a number of animated television series such as The Simpsons, Futurama, The Cleveland Show and The Boondocks, as well as to Pixar films Monsters University and Inside Out.

Trivia: Many know actor Darryl M. Bell for his role as Ron Johnson on the sitcom A Different World. He would also appear in projects like the Spike Lee film School Daze, and on the show Homeboys in Outer Space. In 2009, Bell signed up to appear on the reality series Husbands of Hollywood.

Trivia: African American character actor Glynn R. Turman was first introduced to the general public as Lew Miles, teen-aged son of Dr. Harry Miles (Percy Rodrigues) and his wife, Alma (Ruby Dee), during the 1968-1969 season of the prime-time TV soap opera Peyton Place. Turman went on to star as Chicago high schooler Leroy "Preach" Jackson in the 1975 film sleeper Cooley High. Settling into character roles in the 1980s, Turman was most often seen as judges, military officers, police detectives, and well-to-do patriarches. A departure from these "establishment" assignments was Turman's star turn in the 1981 TV-movie Thornwell, in which he portrayed real-life soldier James Thornwell, who accused the U.S. Army of subjecting him to illegal mind-controlling drugs. Turman's weekly series roles have included Secretary of State LaRue Hawkes in 1985's Hail to the Chief, and Colonel Bradford Taylor (aka "Dr. War") in the popular Cosby Show spin-off A Different World (1988-1993); he also appeared in the 1983 pilot episode of Manimal as Ty Earl, a role essayed by Michael D. Roberts in the series proper. In the 2000s, Turman played the memorable role of fictional Baltimore mayor Clarence V. Royce on the critically acclaimed HBO series The Wire. Also on HBO, he appeared in a few episodes of the psychotherapy drama In Treatment, winning an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his role as the tough, strict father of Blair Underwood's troubled fighter pilot. In the years to come, Turman would remain active on screen, appearing on shows like The Defenders and House of Lies.

Trivia: Big- and small-screen supporting player Julius J. Carry III specialized in tough, aggressive, street-smart characterizations, typically with a comic edge, and often though not always in urban-oriented material. A Windy City native, Carry debuted with a small turn in the Rudy Ray Moore blaxploitation vehicle Disco Godfather (1979) and also played a ferocious gang leader, The Shogun, in Berry Gordy's ambitious but empty youth picture The Last Dragon (1985). Meanwhile, Carry found his bread and butter by signing for over 100 guest roles on television series including Alice, The A-Team, and The Jeffersons, as well as recurring parts on series including It's a Living (as amiable physician Reggie St. Thomas), Murphy Brown, and Boy Meets World. He also turned up in additional features; big-screen assignments included the role of a CIA agent in the Tom Hanks comedy The Man With One Red Shoe (1985) and a nutty coach in the Richard Pryor vehicle Moving (1988). Carry died of pancreatic cancer at age 56 in the late summer of 2008.

Trivia: While she appeared in several notable features in the 1980s and 1990s, TV was the star-making venue for Jasmine Guy. A multi-talented performer, Boston-born Guy began her career as a dancer for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. She moved to acting and television, however, with a part in the TV film At Mother's Request (1987) and a starring role as snooty co-ed beauty Whitley in The Cosby Show spin-off A Different World (1987-1993). During the show's six season run, Guy also made her feature film debut in Spike Lee's politically charged college comedy/musical School Daze (1988) and co-starred in Eddie Murphy's ill-fated Harlem Nights (1989). Guy further revealed her range in TV movies Runaway (1989), A Killer Among Us (1990), and Stompin' at the Savoy (1992). After A Different World ended in 1993, Guy continued to be a regular TV presence with numerous guest star roles throughout the 1990s, particularly on Melrose Place and NYPD Blue. Guy also returned to the stage as a musical theater actress in touring companies of Grease and Chicago, played a major role in the feature thriller Kla$h (1995), and made a brief appearance as one of Stephen Rea's former female protégées in the 1999 Sundance Film Festival prizewinner Guinevere. She continued to act in projects such as the made-for-TV remake of Carrie, and enjoyed a run on the short-lived Dead Like Me - both of those projects written by Bryan Fuller. She appeared in the 2010 sequel Stomp the Yard: Homecoming, and the 2012 adoption/abortion drama October Baby.

Trivia: Best known as slightly geeky would-be ladies' man Dwayne Wayne on the television series A Different World, actor Kadeem Hardison's engaging onscreen persona and easy flair for comedy has earned him steady work as a supporting player in both film and television. Born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1965, Hardison became interested in acting when he was in his early teens, and he began studying theater at New York's Eubie Blake Theater, where one of his instructors was Earle Hyman, who later portrayed Grandpa Huxtable on The Cosby Show. Hardison's work with Hyman helped win the young actor a guest spot on a 1984 episode of The Cosby Show, playing opposite Lisa Bonet; the same year, Hardison made his big-screen debut with a small role in the hip-hop musical Beat Street. Hardison made a handful of appearances in movies and television projects over the next two years, but his debut appearance on The Cosby Show earned him a major dividend in 1987, when Denise Huxtable, Lisa Bonet's character on The Cosby Show, was spun-off into her own series, A Different World, and Hardison was cast as fellow student Dwayne Wayne. While Bonet left the show after its first season, Hardison remained in the cast for its entire seven-season run, and directed several during the show's final two seasons. During his down time from A Different World, Hardison continued to work in motion pictures, with supporting roles in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka and School Daze and a leading role in the independent horror film Def By Temptation. After A Different World went off the air in 1993, Hardison concentrated on film work, with roles ranging from the horror/comedy Vampire in Brooklyn to the political drama Panther. In 1997, he took another stab at series television on the short-lived sitcom Between Brothers, and began adding more TV guests spots to his resumé, appearing on Touched By an Angel, Just Shoot Me, and the revived Fantasy Island, while still maintaining a busy schedule of film work. In 2008 he played a small role in the romantic comedy Made of Honor, and co-starred in the 2011 horror Ashes, which followed a doctor who unintentionally releases a deadly plague.