The ‘RHOBH’ stars in a recent Hulu Series and has been getting acting gigs non-stop.
With her roles in movies and on television, Garcelle Beauvais has kept herself busy over the years. She is currently the lead in the five-episode Hulu miniseries The Other Black Girl, which debuted on September 13. She made her production debut earlier this year on Lifetime’s Black Girl Missing. Beauvais has a long history in the entertainment business and has consistently stayed true to her identity while advocating for minorities. She has had notable parts on shows including Coming to America, NYPD Blue, The Jamie Foxx Show with Jamie Foxx, and others throughout her acting career. Her inclusion as the first Black housewife on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast for Season 10 will only be topped by it.
Her four years on the show have been marked by ups and downs, and she’s stated that being the first Black woman to appear as a recurring cast member made her feel like an outsider. Slowly but surely, she’s managed to express her voice, speak up on certain issues, and bring an honest take on the dynamics that happen among the women of Beverly Hills. Her work outside of acting includes being an author of children’s books, an author of her memoir Love Me as I Am, and creating a bed clothing line in partnership with HSN, where she channels her passion for interior design. In 2022, Garcelle was also a co-host on the daytime talk show The Real, along with Adrienne Bailon, Loni Love, and Jeannie Mai.
Beauvais’ ‘Coming To America’ and Beginnings
Garcelle, a native of Haiti, spent a portion of her childhood in the Caribbean before relocating to Massachusetts shortly after. Youngly separated from her parents, she spent the majority of her time with her mother’s side of the family. She has repeatedly stated in interviews that she had never seen “white people” before and that everything was completely new to her. Additionally, she first began picking up English while at home watching Sesame Street. She apparently relocated to New York at the age of 17 to seek a modeling career. As a result of her modeling, she frequently traveled between Miami and New York, winning editorial gigs and runway shows with high-end fashion houses like Calvin Klein and Isaac Mizrahi.
After some experience in modeling, Garcelle landed her first credited television role, appearing in two episodes of the iconic 1980s show Miami Vice as a waitress along with Don Johnson. A couple of years later, she would also get her second role in a film, appearing as a royal rose bearer in Coming to America with Eddie Murphy. Her roles in television became increasingly significant through the span of the eighties, nineties, and early 2000s.
Non-stop Acting Gigs For Garcelle Beauvais
Models Inc., NYPD Blue, Siren, Eyes, Grimm, Tell Me More, and the enduring hit The Jamie Foxx Show, where she played Jamie’s love interest for the course of the show’s five seasons, are just a few of the shows where Garcelle has had numerous recurring-scripted parts. Smaller roles on a number of sitcoms, such as Family Matters, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Life With Bonnie, 10.5: Apocalypse, The Mentalist, and others, are also part of her television resume.
She has had multiple movie appearances, most of which have been in supporting roles. Some of these movies are Wild Wild West, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Flight, I Know Who Killed Me, American Gun, Women in Trouble, Suddenly Single, Life, Bad Company, White House Down, And Then There Was You, Girlfriends’ Getaway, and Girlfriends’ Getaway 2.
Garcelle Becomes a Pioneer Housewife on ‘RHOBH’
Garcelle marked a historical moment in the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills franchise as the first black recurring cast member. “Life is an audition, and honey, I am getting that part,” as one of her taglines read, is how she was introduced to the show. She began treading lightly, stayed clear for the most part, and slowly began speaking her mind towards certain things that didn’t sit well with her. During her time on the show, she’s made on-and-off-camera alliances with cast members Sutton Stracke, Kathy Hilton, and former housewife, Lisa Vanderpump. Her son was even given a job opportunity in one of Lisa’s restaurants, and Garcelle has made a guest appearance on Vanderpump Rules.
In conversation with the crew of The Breakfast Club radio show, she explained of her casting, “I was a fan of the franchise. And I obviously had friends in Beverly Hills, but as an actor, I was traveling so much. My kids were about to go to middle school, as it is because I’m divorced, I have them half of the time, and I really wanted to do something that was going to keep me in LA. So that was a big factor in it.” On RHOBH, she’s been open to discussing personal issues like her painful and public divorce, her kids growing up, the hardships of dating life, celebrity relationships, and her son Oliver’s growth after going through addiction when he was younger.
Her time on the show has been overall “fun,” as she recalls from an interview with ABC, despite her ups and downs and disagreements with other cast members. During the span of her time on the show, she’s had arguments with Kyle Richards regarding allegations that Garcelle hadn’t donated what she had promised for a charity cause. She explained on and off the show that this “cut her to the core” because of the stereotypes surrounding her community and not paying what they’re supposed to. Another one of her most controversial moments involved questions about “victims” related to Erika Jayne and Tom Girardi’s embezzlement case. She and Sutton Stracke have expressed that her demeanor towards the situations shows a lack of “compassion”.
On her fights on camera, she also stated, “Yeah, that was tough for me; I mean, it’s still tough for me. That’s the hardest part of the job because we’re supposed to be friends… And sometimes it’s like I wouldn’t be friends with somebody who can throw me under the bus too. So that’s the challenge for me on the show.”
Garcelles’ Memoir, Family Life, and Next Chapter
Last year, Garcelle’s Memoir Love Me as I Am was published and had an overall positive reception. The book touches on her past marriage, her kids, moments of struggle, and her time on RHOBH. In regard to her family, she notes that she would’ve wished for her father to be more present so that she could’ve had a better understanding of him. On the Housewives topic, she brings up an issue she had with Lisa Rinna about a comment she made related to her daughter’s struggle with an eating disorder. She explains that she wanted to ask Rinna a motherly question, but Rinna had taken it the wrong way and became defensive about it. The book is available on Amazon for physical copies, ebooks, and Kindle.
She’s also expressed that she’s been dreading the moment of seeing her grown boys leave the house for college and that she wishes that they would like to spend time with each other just as much as she does. Despite having a divorce years ago from producer Michael Nilon, she’s at peace with their co-parenting skills and has a healthy relationship with him and her sons.
In her recent movie Black Girl Missing, she plays a concerned mother whose daughter has disappeared under strange circumstances and struggles to get authorities to treat the missing case with due diligence and in the face of racial stereotypes. The Other Black Girl is about a black woman, Nella, who, along with her colleague Hazel, is being haunted by her publishing company. Garcelle plays an estranged author who had some bad blood with the company but had a fallout with them when doing business. The show is streaming now on Hulu.
She responds, “That’s a very good question. ” when asked about her upcoming iterations in her ABC interview. The next phase will definitely involve producing and spending time with my children before they leave for college, if you know what I mean. I’m dreading that, as you know, but I’m open. And I enjoy having an open mind about what comes next. I’m available since I have a home line with HSN called “Garcelle At Home.” When season 13 of RHOBH debuts later this year, considerably more of Garcelle is anticipated to be seen. Her bed wear line was released in May.