33 Facts About Jasmine Guy

Jasmine Chanel Guy was born on March 10,1962 and is an American actress, singer, dancer and director.

Jasmine Guy is known for her role as Dina in the 1988 film School Daze and as Whitley Gilbert-Wayne on the NBC The Cosby Show spin-off A Different World, which originally ran from 1987 to 1993.

Jasmine Guy played Roxy Harvey on Dead Like Me and as Sheila "Grams" Bennet on The Vampire Diaries.

Jasmine Guy's mother, a Portuguese-American, was a former high-school teacher, and her father, who was African American, was pastor of the historic Friendship Baptist Church of Atlanta, which served as an early home to Spelman College; he was a college instructor in philosophy and religion.

Jasmine Guy began her television career with a non-speaking role, as a dancer, in seven episodes of the 1982 television series Fame under the direction of choreographer Debbie Allen.

Jasmine Guy today remains best known for her starring role as Whitley Gilbert in the television sitcom A Different World.

Jasmine Guy wrote three episodes of the show and directed one, in addition to appearing in every episode: she started as a co-star, but ended up replacing the show's original star Lisa Bonet, who left the series.

Jasmine Guy was nominated for and won six consecutive NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

In 1992, Jasmine Guy appeared in CBS's Stompin' at the Savoy alongside Vanessa Williams, again under the direction of Debbie Allen, and in 1993, she played the mother of Halle Berry's character in the CBS TV mini-series Queen.

In 1995, Jasmine Guy appeared as Peter Burns' love interest, Caitlin Mills, on two episodes of Melrose Place, and in 1996, she appeared on Living Single, playing a psychologist treating main character Khadijah for anxiety.

Jasmine Guy played the recurring role of Kathleen, a fallen angel, in the CBS Network drama Touched by an Angel from 1995 to 1997.

In 2002, Jasmine Guy lent her voice to the PBS math-based animated series Cyberchase, playing Ava, the queen of the cybersite Symmetria, and made a cameo appearance on the Moesha spin-off The Parkers.

In 2003, Jasmine Guy played Mary Estes Peters in the HBO documentary, Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narrative, a documentary which premiered during Black History Month.

Jasmine Guy starred alongside Ellen Muth and Mandy Patinkin in the series Dead Like Me, created by Bryan Fuller.

Jasmine Guy played Roxy Harvey, a meter maid turned police officer and one of the core group of grim reapers around which the series was based.

Jasmine Guy was nominated for the 2005 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for the role.

Jasmine Guy later starred in the feature-length series sequel Dead Like Me: Life After Death, which was released on video in 2009 before being shown on the Syfy channel.

In 2009, Jasmine Guy performed in The People Speak, a documentary that used dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.

In 2010, she was seen in the second season of the Lifetime comedy series Drop Dead Diva as a judge in the episode titled "Last Year's Model," and from 2009 to 2017, Jasmine Guy had a recurring role in The CW's series The Vampire Diaries.

In that program, Jasmine Guy played Sheila "Grams" Bennett, the grandmother of Bonnie, who proved to be a descendant of Salem Witches.

Jasmine Guy made her film debut in 1988 in Spike Lee's musical-drama film School Daze.

Jasmine Guy played the role of 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.

Jasmine Guy starred in the short film My Nephew Emmett, which won the Student Academy Award and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2018.

In 1987, Jasmine Guy had a starring role in the off-Broadway hit musical Beehive, before traveling to France to appear in a similar musical review.

Jasmine Guy has performed in several Broadway productions and national tours, including as Crow in The Wiz, Mickey in Leader of the Pack, Betty Rizzo in Grease, and as Velma Kelly in Chicago.

Blues came on the heels of Jasmine Guy's held-over run in True Colors' Miss Evers' Boys, which co-starred TC Carson of Living Single.

Jasmine Guy directed the world premiere of I Dream in July 2010 on the Alliance Stage of the Woodruff Arts Centre in Atlanta.

Also in 2010, Jasmine Guy was a member of the cast of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and the Alliance Theatre Company co-production of Pearl Cleage's The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One-Hundred Years.

In early 2011, Guy directed George C Wolfe's The Colored Museum for True Colors, and in June 2011, Guy costarred with Kenny Leon in their production of Sam Shepard's play Fool For Love at The Balzer Theater at Herren's in Atlanta, Georgia.

Jasmine Guy continues to contribute to the company on stage as well.

Jasmine Guy appeared in his music video "Temptations" and later wrote his mother's biography, Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary.

Jasmine Guy married Terrence Duckett in August 1998, and the couple had one child, a daughter named Imani, born in 1999.

Jasmine Guy endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for President in the 2016 US presidential election.