Jasmine Guy, unlike Raven Symone, was a young black female talent that is beautiful, gifted, rich and married a black man and now has beautiful black children and gives back to her people.
Ms. Guy is best known for playing Whitley Gilbert, the memorably spoiled Southern belle in the comedy series A Different World, which ran on NBC from 1987 to 1993. Ms. Guy won six consecutive NAACP Image Awards for the role.
But Ms. Guy actually began her performing career as a dancer. Though born in Boston, she grew up in Atlanta, where her father, Rev. William Guy, was the pastor of the historic Friendship Baptist Church. Jasmine began taking ballet lessons at age 5 and, inspired by performers like the visiting Dance Theater of Harlem, she went on to study dance at Atlanta’s performing arts high school. At 17, she won a scholarship to join the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York City, where she spent three years as a concert dancer.
Since completing her run as Whitley Gilbert, Ms. Guy has divided her time between stage and screen. She appeared with Halle Berry, Martin Sheen and Paul Winfield in the 1993 Alex Haley miniseries Queen and laterhad guest appearances on many series, including Melrose Place, NYPD Blue, andFresh Prince of Bel-Air. After marrying and giving birth to daughter Imani in 1999, she returned to the stage, winning acclaim for her portrayal of Velma Kelly in Bob Fosse’s Chicago in performances all across America. Back on television in 2003, she starred alongside Mandy Patinkin in Showtime’s two-year hit series Dead Like Me. She will reprise her role in a movie version due out in 2008.
In 2004, Ms. Guy published “Evolution of a Revolutionary,” an absorbing profile of Afeni Shakur, the mother of slain rap star Tupac Shakur. Ms. Guy is active in many charities, including A Place Called Home, a community safe house that offers food, security, sports, music and educational activities to more than 2,000 children in south central Los Angeles. Among the center’s offerings is a dance school, founded by Ms. Guy and now run by her sister Monica
Posted By: jamal Abraham
Saturday, July 9th 2011 at 4:25PM
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