Chatter has swirled around the upcoming A Different World reboot hasn’t cast enough fundamentally Black Americans (FBAs) for the new Hillman College class, a sentiment that seems to be happening across TV shows. But Jasmine Guy—forever etched into TV history as Whitley Gilbert Wayne—is here to remind us that A Different World casting has always been diverse.
“We’re not all the same,” Guy told EBONY. “White people can do an all-white movie, but they’re still different—different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different cultures. That’s what America is. We bring a diaspora with us. It’s not all one thing.”
It starts with Guy herself. She has a biracial background: her father is African American, and her mother is Portuguese-American. Fellow A Different World OG Cree Summer was born to a white Canadian father, actor Don Francks, and an African American mother. She was raised on the Indigenous Reserve in Saskatchewan, Canada.
What A Different World has always done is tackle issues that affected our community as a whole, something she knows the show’s revival will do when it returns to TV in the Netflix reboot.
“Before COVID, it was just a succession of mass killings. And I thought if we were on the air right now, we’d be dealing with that,” she said. “Somebody at our school would’ve been shot by the police.”
With the A Different World reboot set to premiere on Netflix later this year, Guy is ready for the show to once again approach difficult conversations with heart and authenticity, something she’s wanted to do for nearly a quarter-century.
“I did write a pilot version of how we, I thought we could bring the show back around that time, early 2000,” she revealed to EBONY. It took a minute for all the creative forces to get on board, just like they did before Debbie Allen joined as director and executive producer in season two.
“With A Different World’s first season, there were just some things that didn’t ring true, but it was my first show. I didn’t know if I could say anything,” Guy confessed. “I was looking for something that was more truthful about an HBCU because my father taught at Morehouse College for 35 years.”
She recalled a table read that highlighted the show’s lack of authenticity. “I said, ‘Can I just say there’s no way that the students at an HBCU are calling their professors by their first name. I just tried to imagine my dad’s students calling him Bill. I was like, ‘mmm.’” We all know what that means.
“A lot of what was missing was the culture of an HBCU. Debbie helped bring that in when she came in season two,” Guy added. It was through details both big and small, from hot sauce on the table to hair, makeup, and new characters that reflected Black life, making this moment forever etched in our nostalgia banks.
It was a moment relived in her Super Bowl cameo this past Sunday.
In one of the night’s most buzzed-about ads, Guy stepped into Ben Affleck’s surreal cinematic mashup—a 30-second dream that blended Good Will Hunting and a tear-jerking episode reminiscent of Dawson’s Creek into a faux lost scene from the would-be sitcom Good Will Dunkin. It was a collision of ‘90s TV royalty, dripping with angsty nostalgia.
“I kind of didn’t get it at first,” Guy admitted with a chuckle. “And when I started to get it, I said, ‘Is this really happening?’ Being on the set with them was so much fun and so inclusive and alive.”
That inclusivity brought her together with fellow ‘90s icons Alfonso Ribero, Jaleel White, Matt LeBlanc, Jason Alexander, Ted Danson, Jennifer Aniston—and yes, Tom Brady, who clearly enjoyed his moment among sitcom legends.
For Guy, the experience was a rare chance to relive the magic of television past—from the camaraderie of ensemble casts to the shared mission of making shows audiences actually wanted to watch.
“There were so many stories to tell about favorite times, favorite moments, things we thought were hilarious on set, but the audience didn’t. I had a lot of those moments with A Different World.”
Some things never change. Well, not much. We’re talking about Whitley Wayne’s voice. Said Guy, “Let me just say it’s lower.”
Nostalgia can be delicious when served up right.