Jasmine Guy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jasmine Guy (born March 10, 1964 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American actress. She is most well known for her starring role as Southern girl Whitley Gilbert in the television series A Different World.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Born to an African-American father and a European/Southern American mother, Guy was raised in Atlanta, Georgia, where she attended the former Northside High School (which merged with North Fulton High School to form North Atlanta High School). Her father, the Reverend William Guy, was pastor of the historic Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta, which served as an early home to Morehouse College and Spelman College. (The latter school served as the setting for "Hillman College," the fictional school depicted in A Different World.) She later studied dance at Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York City in 1981.
During the run of A Different World, she released her self-titled debut album in 1990, which spawned three Billboard Top 100 hits: "Try Me", "Another Like My Lover", and "Just Want To Hold You." In the spring of 2006, Jasmine spoke to the graduating class at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and revealed that she will record a second album. She commented that of all the entertainment industries, the music industry was the worst. She will sell her new album online herself and not through a major label, similar to the marketing strategy used by Prince.
She married Terrence Duckette in 1998. The couple has one child, a girl named Imani, born in 1999.
[edit] Television roles
Guy had a cameo role in an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air where she played one of Will Smith's girlfriends; her character was having problems in college and found that spending time with him made her situation even worse. In an appearance on Living Single (created by A Different World executive Yvette Lee Bowser), Guy played a psychologist who advised Khadijah when she began exhibiting symptoms of bipolar disorder. She also made a cameo appearances on the Moesha spin-off The Parkers, That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana, and the That's So Raven episode "Checkin' Out" as a famous fashion photographer named Pistache. The actress had a starring role in Dead Like Me as Roxy Harvey. In the cartoon Cyberchase, Guy has lent her voice to two characters: Ava, the queen of the cybersite Symmetria, and Ms. Fileshare the Cybrarian. She also provided the speaking voice to female lead of the cartoon movie, Cats Don't Dance. She also had a guest appearance on Melrose place.
[edit] Film roles
Early in the run of the TV series that made her famous, Guy took a major film role playing Dominique La Rue in 1989's Harlem Nights, starring Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor. In the film, Pryor's character, Harlem "Sugar" Ray, is the owner of an illegal casino, who contends with the pressures of vicious gangsters and corrupt policemen who want to see him go out of business in 1920s Harlem. Guy played the girlfriend of the group's nemesis, who set out to seduce and kill Murphy. Jasmine also had a role in the 1988 musical-drama film School Daze as Dina a member of the light-skinned, straight-haired African American women of Gamma Ray (a women's auxiliary to the Gamma Phi Gamma fraternity) , written and directed by Spike Lee. This movie stars Laurence Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito, and Tisha Campbell. Jasmine has also provided the voice of Sawyer Cat in the Warner bros animated film Cats Don't Dance.
[edit] Stage
Guy has performed in several Broadway shows, appearing as Crow in The Wiz, Mickey in Leader of the Pack, Betty Rizzo in Grease and Velma Kelly in Chicago.
[edit] Radio
The actress recorded a public service announcement for Deejay Ra's 'Hip-Hop Literacy' campaign, encouraging reading of books about Tupac Shakur. She was a friend of the late rapper, who once appeared on her show, and she remained a friend of his mother, Afeni Shakur.
[edit] Music
[edit] Albums
| Album cover | Album information |
|---|---|
 |
Jasmine Guy
|
[edit] Singles
| Year | Title | Album | US | US R&B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | "Try Me" | Jasmine Guy | - | 14 |
| 1991 | "Another Like My Lover" | Jasmine Guy | 66 | 9 |
| 1991 | "Just Want To Hold You (with James Ingram)" | Jasmine Guy | 34 | 3 |
| 1991 | "Don't Want Money" | Jasmine Guy | - | - |
[edit] External link
- Jasmine Guy at the Internet Movie Database
- Jasmine Guy at TV.com
- Jasmine Guy at the Internet Broadway Database
- Jasmine Guy at Yahoo! Movies
- Official site
