Karyn Parsons conquered us thanks to her charisma and good sense of humor playing the character of Hilary Banks, that very consumerist and elitist girl who became one of the essential roles of this mythical series of the 90s. However, after the end of The Prince of Bel Air, she did not have much luck in the audiovisual industry.
According to interviews, such as the one granted to Vice in 2019, in those years Hollywood was still very closed-minded and the only African-American actress who seemed to exist in the industry was Halle Berry. But she did not give up.
Given the lack of offers, Karyn Parsons launched herself to produce her own content and premiered series such as Lush Life, a feminist sitcom that was not well received by the public and was canceled by Fox after only four episodes.
After this setback, Parsons decided to turn her professional life around and put acting aside to focus on solidarity projects . Her goal was to help young African-American people to know their history and claim their rights, so she became a writer, published books like Flying Free: How Bessie Coleman’s Dreams Took Flight or How High the Moon and even created the charity Sweet Blackberry focused on childhood education.
It is striking that this very supportive side of Karyn Parsons is just the opposite side of Hilary from The Prince of Bel Air, a selfish character who only thought about her whims. But although Parsons put aside acting and the success of this legendary series with Will Smith is already far behind him, today, at 55, she still fondly remembers that stage. In addition, in 2020 she returned to act in Sweet Thing, an independent film directed by her husband Alexandre Rockwell and starring their two children.