Remember “Kim Reese” on A Different World? Her real name is Charnele Brown. One interesting thing about her is that before we came to know her as the cute girl at “Hillman College,” she walked away from a very promising career that many parents would have given her the side-eye for stepping away from. Especially considering the fact that she’d gotten a shot at a then-unknown TV sitcom that didn’t yet involve a promising and consistent paycheck.
However, Charnele didn’t feel that way, and in 1987 when she got the call that the producers wanted to try her out for It’s A Different World, she’d instantly ended her career as a stock broker on Wall Street in New York City! That’s right…she packed her bags up, and headed to Los Angeles with the quickness!
During her time as a stock broker, Charnele Brown was also a struggling actress who was constantly looking for work and facing repeated rejection from casting calls because they would tell her that as a brown girl, her look wasn’t “in.” That is absolutely ridiculous, but Charnele never let the ignorance of the entertainment industry hamper her determination, nor her drive. So the day before Black Monday on Wall Street, she put it all on the line with the hope that her role on It’s A Different World would stick…and fortunately it did.
That last we heard…Charnele is now doing more work behind the scenes, writing several stage plays for the theatrical world in Houston, TX and she was also working on developing a sitcom to give mainstream media more positive African American representations on television. And she doesn’t bite her tongue when it comes to voicing her dislike for the shows she sees on television today. This is what she said about today’s entertainment climate:
Via Style Magazine – “Twenty years ago if someone would have told me we love to see black women on TV back biting and fighting, I would have laughed in their face. Now we have to bring back the wholesomeness in television. We can bring back dignity through reality TV,” [said Charnele Brown]. Charnele is a Christian who is objective enough to understand that acting and entertainment is simply a job. Actors must make the decision within themselves to go as far as they want. “I don’t like that people talk about Beyonce. She is a light and a woman of God. Anyone who judges her and can’t see the light within her doesn’t have the light within themselves.”
We understand where Charnele is coming from. Although I don’t knock reality shows, I do think it’s time to bring more balance to the TV screen and mainstream media overall…just as we desperately need more balance with today’s music. We wish Charnele Brown much success with her attempt to contribute to helping to bring about that change.
-ILoveOldSchoolMusic, Old School news with a new point of view
