Early life, family, educational background
American actress Karen Malina White was born on 7 July 1965, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, making her a Cancer. She attended the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts before graduating cum laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Howard University. During her last year of university, she won Miss Howard University, and was cast in her first acting role.
She’s probably best known for voicing Dikonay Jones in “The Proud Family,” for playing Nicolette Vandross in “Malcolm & Eddie,” as Kaneesha Carter in “Lean on Me”, and as Charmaine Brown in “The Cosby Show.”
Who is Malcolm-Jamal Warner?
American writer, producer, director, and actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner was born on 18 August 1970 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA, making him a Leo. He was raised by his single parent mother, Pamela, who worked as a manager. Pamela named him after jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal and Malcolm X. As early as nine years old, Malcolm became interested in acting and he eventually matriculated from The Professional Children’s School, located in New York City.
Malcolm met actress Michelle Thomas on the set of “The Cosby Show,” wherein she played his girlfriend, Justine Philips. The two began dating in real life until they broke up in 1994; she passed away four years later, with Malcolm was at her side when she took her last breath.
He dated Karen for seven and a half years before moving on with another actress Regina King; they dated from 2011 to March 2013. Malcolm is currently married and has a daughter with his wife, but his wife’s identity is kept private, as is their daughter’s name and birthdate.
He is famous for his roles as Malcolm McGee in “Malcolm & Eddie,” Theodore Huxtable in “The Cosby Show,” and Dr. Alex Reed in “Reed Between the Lines.” He won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his work in “The Cosby Show”, and is an executive producer for “The Magic School Bus.” He won a Grammy Award in 2015 for Best Traditional R&B Performance, along with Lalah Hathaway and Robert Glasper’s Experiment for their song, “Jesus Children.” He played Al Cowlings in “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” an FX limited series, and most recently, Malcolm has portrayed Dr. AJ Austin in “The Resident,” a FOX medical drama.
Career
Karen’s debut onscreen performance was as Jasmine in the television series “In Our Lives” and her next acting job was in 1989, as Lisa in the series “A Man Called Hawk” in the episodes entitled “The Divided Child” and “Beautiful Are the Stars.” That year, she was also cast alongside Morgan Freeman as the lead role in the 1989 film “Lean on Me”, a performance which won her a Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress Supporting Role in a Motion Picture in 1990. From 1990 to 1992, she appeared as Charmaine Brown in seasons 7 and 8 of “The Crosby Show”, and reprised her role in 1992 and 1993 when she guest-appeared in season five of “A Different World” and became part of the main cast in season six. She portrayed Rene in an episode of Herman’s Head” entitled “There’s a Fly Girl in my Soup.” From 1993 to 1994 she recurred as Yolanda in season two of “Getting By” and Michelle in season three of “Roc” and from 1993 to 1997 she recurred in seasons two and five as Florence and guest-appeared in season four.
From 1994 to 1995 Karen played Abyssinia Churchill in two episodes of “My So-Called Life”, entitled “Self-Esteem” and “Betrayal.” She played Jewel, the wife of DJ Jazzy Jeff in two episodes – “The Ol’ Ball and Chain” and “Mother’s Day” – of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” in 1994, and in the following year she played Mary in “Once Upon a Time… When We Were Colored”, and was in a short film entitled “Statistically Speaking.”
Karen also made a few television appearances that year, playing Janet in “Me and the Boys,” Nina in “The Parent ‘Hood,” and Jennifer Koosman in “Chicago Hope” in the episode “Hello Goodbye.” The next year she played Shayla in “Living Single” in the episode “Woman to Woman,” Leslie in the “Laborer of Love” episode of “The Home Court,” and Natalie in “Dave’s World” in the episode “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” From 1996 to 2000 she played Nicolette Vandross in “Malcolm & Eddie.”
In 2000 she played Tracy Donovan in “Seven Days” in the episode “Mr. Donovan’s Neighborhood”, and from 2001 to 2005 she voiced Jijonay Jones in the Disney series “The Proud Family.” Concurrently, in 2001 she played Constance ‘Connie’ MacRane in the series “Strong Medicine”, then the role of Rickie in the 2002 episode of “Jeremiah” entitled “City of Roses”. In 2003, she was Dez’ Girlfriend in “The Shield,” Sonia Williamson in “Boston Public” in 2004, and Denise in “The Bernie Mac Show” 2005 episode entitled “The Big Payback.” In 2006 she was cast as Madison in the short film “The Ties That Bind,” and the following year she played an Acting Teacher in the film “I Gotta Be Better Than Keanu”, and voiced Mindy 500 in the series “Random! Cartoons.”
2011 and 2012 were fairly busy years for Karen – in 2011 she appeared in “Kissed by the Devil” as June Henderson, in “Aurora Borealis” as the Head Nurse, and in “Cheaper to Keep Her” as Koren. In 2012 she was Susan in “Who’s Watching the Kids,” Tina in “Love Overboard,” Nurse Kathy in “A Better Pill,” Florence Theresa Ford in “Where Do We Go from Here” and Doris Miller in the famous series “Suits.” She played Camryn Davis in 2013’s “Jump In: The Movie,” and in 2014 Aretha in the short film “Freeloader” and in “Unspeakable Indiscretions” as Paulette. She also appeared in “How to Get Away with Murder” as Carla in the episode “Let’s Go Shopping”, and in “The Mentalist” as Elsie Graham in the episode “Black Helicopters” in 2014.
The following year Karen was a recurring cast member in season two of “I Didn’t Do It” as Betty LeBow.” In 2016 she played Mrs. Roberts in an episode of “The Middle” entitled “Look Who’s Not Talking,” Paula in “Mike & Molly” in the episode “The Adoption Option,” Kimberly in an episode of “Veep” and as Sylvie Prum in the “Shameless” episode “Home Sweet Homeless Shelter.”
In 2016 Karen portrayed Nurse Vasquez in the short film “Mule,” Karen Stevens in another short film, “Caged” and Dina in “Silent Cry Aloud.” From 2016 to 2018 she portrayed Dina in three episodes of “Animal Kingdom/” She played Julia the following year in “a.m. Sunday,” Doris Perkins in “Snowfall” and Karen in the 2019 television film “The Crack’d Nutz Experiment.” In 2018 she played Loretta in the “Raven’s Home” episode “Keepin’ It Real” and Latrice in “Kidding” in the episode entitled “Philliam.”
“HBCU White House” Season 1 Episode 27 – Now Streaming. https://t.co/F3Pt69Smi6https://t.co/MziMbgpdvG
Featuring:
Karen Malina White
Actress, #TheProudFamily: Louder and Prouder” on Disney+
Twitter: @karen_malina pic.twitter.com/ROJvUeIqJZ— HBCU White House (@hbcuwhitehouse) February 24, 2022
In 2019 she joined the season two recurring cast of “Lodge 49” as Trish, from 2019 to 2020 she played Debra in two episodes of “Better Things,” called “Chicago” and “New Orleans,” and in 2020 she played Natalie in two episodes of “Mom” and Samantha in an episode of “Cherish the Day.” Karen appeared in two television films in 2021, “Love, for Real” as Marie and “‘Tis the Season to be Merry” as Sonia Hendricks. Karen played LaShae Fair in an episode of “The Zip Code Plays: Los Angeles” entitled “91331: Pacoima – Gold & Shine,” as Avery Webber in “9-1-1” in the episode “First Responders” and most recently Karen reprised her role as voicing Dijonay Jones in the revival series, “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder.”
Personal life
Karen dated fellow actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner from 1997 to 2005, but the pair never became engaged or married despite what the rumor mill spun, ‘I’m not married,’ she shared in 2009, ‘People probably started saying that because we were in a relationship for seven and a half years.’ Karen has never married and doesn’t have children.
Appearance
Karen stands at 5ft 3ins (160cm) tall, weighs about 120lbs (55kg), and has black hair and dark brown eyes. She has a slim body type and wears a US size 4 dress.
Net worth and salary
As of September 2022, her net worth is estimated at close to $1 million, and she reputedly earns around $10,000 a month.
