If there was some juicy gossip, you could count on Vanessa Huxtable to dig it up. Usually, she was learning about trouble her siblings caused while she herself stayed out of it, but Vanessa could give her parents trouble too. What about Tempestt Bledsoe, a key part to the heart of The Cosby Show? What did she get up to after this formative sitcom ended?
Tempestt Bledsoe was born on August 1, 1973, in Chicago Illinois, but ended up attending college at New York University, specifically Stern School of Business where she earned a finance degree. Sounds involved? It was, and it is a glimpse into the personal discipline she exercised throughout her career, even as a child actor. Said acting career began in 1984 and she was off to a meaningful start, landing the role of Vanessa in the NBC series The Cosby Show when she was just 11.
Pacing out a stable career
This early start in the industry worked out well for the rising star and the producers’ vision for the show; the characters were intended to mirror real-life Cosby counterparts to an extent, though they were the Huxtable family. It turned out Bledsoe was born on the same day as Ensa Cosby. Other cast members follow a similar trend; Lisa Bonet and Malcolm-Jamal Warner were born a year after and before their Cosby counterparts respectively.
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On The Cosby Show, Bledsoe helped play out some of the important plotlines key in any family-oriented series, even a sitcom, complete with peer pressure, romance, and forgiveness. After this practically tailor-made experience, Bledsoe kept acting, and her career remains unique for not hitting any significant bumps in the road, whether those be typecasting or unwise decisions. Her parents are credited with keeping her on a course to only focus on improving her acting and not focusing on the invasive attention child stars can inspire. So, she balanced her thirst for knowledge with more acting jobs, and even hosted a program of her own, known as The Tempestt Bledsoe Show, produced by Dick Clark and Columbia TriStar Television.
What is Tempestt Bledsoe doing today?
Tempestt Bledso knew all her life she wanted to just keep branching out and that’s exactly what she did, going into film with credits like Strong Medicine and The Practice. She also provided the voice of Sheriff Hooper in the stop-motion fantasy movie ParaNorman, which is also responsible for Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride and Coraline. There’s definitely a dark, mystical theme at play here.
Fans of the home makeover and interior design series Clean House also saw her take up the mantle of host when she replaced Neicy Nash for the show’s ninth and tenth seasons. She returned to her sitcom roots from 2012 to 2013 in Guys with Kids and was last seen in a 2019 episode of Family Reunion. Lately, she has kept a low profile, still acting as she always wanted to, but also enjoying life with her boyfriend Darryl M. Bell, who she met in 1989 and started seeing back in 1993. Good for them!
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