Jasmine Guy

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.