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Published Dec. 19 2023, 4:56 p.m. ET
It’s been more than two decades since the debut of Fox’s The Bernie Mac Show, in which Bernie Mac’s fictionalized onscreen alter-ego becomes a father figure when he and his wife gain custody of his sister’s kids.
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The sitcom aired five award-winning seasons between 2001 and 2006, and its namesake star passed away not long after. The other four stars of the show, however, have reached new horizons in their careers. Scroll down for updates.
Bernie Mac (Bernie “Mac” McCullough)
Bernie died of complications from pneumonia in 2008 when he was just 50 years old. Following the end of The Bernie Mac Show, the comedian appeared in the 2007 films Ocean’s Thirteen and Transformers and made posthumous appearances in 2008’s Soul Men and 2009’s Old Dogs.
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Niecy Nash, who played Bernie’s sister on The Bernie Mac Show, was one of the celebs who paid tribute to the actor after his death, telling People it was “amazing” to work with him on set.
“I wouldn’t have cared if he called me in the middle of the night to come and be in a scene where I didn’t have anything to do but sit in the background and eat cereal,” she said. “I would’ve just done it because I loved him like that.”
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Kellita Smith (Wanda McCullough)
Kellita recently starred in Netflix’s From Scratch, playing Lynn Wheeler in the rom-com miniseries. Her other recent parts include a guest-starring part on the NBC drama This Is Us and a recurring role on the Allblk production Lace.
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In a 2019 interview with Black Girl Nerds, Kellita said it “was the best feeling ever” to land the Bernie Mac Show job. “Because I busted my a-- for a job like that,” she added. “Then to have it on the air for five years? The series won an Emmy, NAACP Image [Award], a Peabody, Teen Choice Awards, and more? Bernie was so awesome to work with. It was the best job ever.”
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Jeremy Suarez (Jordan Thomkins)
After The Bernie Mac Show, Jeremy took voice roles in the Fox comedy King of the Hill and in the 2012 animated movie Adventures in Zambezia. More recently, he appeared in the 2020 short film Farewell Love and joined Kellita in that same year’s web series Two Degrees.
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In a Hype+ interview in August, Jeremy revealed that he took regular jobs when his Hollywood career slowed down, working as a boilermaker’s apprentice, a line cook, and a cable TV salesman. “So now, once I do fully make that transition back [to Hollywood] — you know, like, rappers got notebooks full of rhymes?” he said. “I got notebooks full of script ideas and character ideas.”
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Dee Dee Davis (Bryana “Baby Girl” Thomkins)
Dee Dee’s screen career seemed to end after The Bernie Mac Show and a 2017 guest-starring role on ER — but then she, too, joined her former costars in the aforementioned Two Degrees in 2020.
In her Instagram bio, Dee Dee says that she has two children, Logan and Leia. She also links out to an OnlyFans page. “I’m a big girl now,” she says in her OnlyFans bio.
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On the podcast The Session, Dee Dee said that Bernie was “literally like a father figure” to her and that he taught her how to snap, tie her shoes, and ride a bicycle. “A lot of different things that I learned on the show, I actually learned in real life, and he was front and center of me learning all these different things,” she said.
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Camille Winbush (Vanessa “Nessa” Thomkins)
Camille moved on from The Bernie Mac Show with a recurring role as Lauren Treacy on The Secret Life of the American Teenager, appearing in 90 episodes of the ABC Family drama between 2008 and 2013. She also voiced characters in the 2019 Netflix series Cannon Busters, and she starred as Carly in the 2022 BET+ original movie Holiday Hideaway.
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She, too, joined OnlyFans and faced backlash from fans, per Atlanta Black Star. However, the site adds, she clapped back in a Twitter thread in February, writing, “If the most scandalous thing strangers can say about me is that I took some sexy pics as an adult and made a couple mil in less than two years, I think I’m doing alright as a human in today’s society.”
