Tatyana Ali was essentially raised on movie and TV sets, but her biggest break was starring as Ashley Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for the entirety of the series' run. In addition to acting, the young star recorded music, at the prompting of co-star Will Smith himself, who noticed that she had some real vocal chops that were also featured on the show in later seasons. Ali had a handful of singles hit the Billboard charts in the late 1990s, including "Daydreaming" and "Boy You Knock Me Out." It's been 26 years since the family sitcom that made her a big name went off the air; read on to see what Ali is up to now.
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Prior to winning the role of Ashley, Ali had played a handful of small roles, including appearing on an episode of The Cosby Show. During the run of The Fresh Prince, she also made time for other projects, which included guest-starring on Getting By and Are You Afraid of the Dark? Just 17 when the sitcom finale aired, the actor went on to many more onscreen gigs. Some of the films she's acted in are Kiss the Girls, Jawbreaker, and Glory Road, while her post-Prince TV career includes roles in The Young and the Restless (she recurred as Roxanne from 2007 to 2013), Love That Girl!, and Key & Peele. She's also appeared in several TV movies, including this year's Vanished: Searching for My Sister. And since 2018, she's voiced Mrs. James on the Disney Junior animated series, Fancy Nancy.
As for music, Ali only released the one studio album, 1998's Kiss the Sky, but in 2014, released an EP titled Hello.
In addition to being an actor and singer, Ali is also an academic. She attended Harvard University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in African-American Studies and Government, graduating in 2002. She met her husband, Vaughn Rasberry, an English professor at Stanford University, on the online dating service, eHarmony. "I was about to let my subscription cancel out, and poof, my husband appeared," Ali told Steve Harvey on his talk show in 2017.
The couple married in 2016 and have two kids together: Edward, who was born just after they tied the knot, and Alejandro, who was born in 2020, per Essence.
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The HBO Max Fresh Prince reunion brought the cast back together in 2020, and the chemistry among the co-stars was as strong as ever. Ali told Allure, "After the reunion, we're all on a group text, so that's really fun. We were having so much fun at the reunion. They just filmed us talking for two days straight." She's also humbled that fans still love the show so much, adding, "Something that meant so much to us personally for all those years still means something to people? It's a gift of a lifetime."
Ali celebrated the Fresh Prince legacy and met back up with her TV family again in 2022 when she attended the premiere of the dramatic Peacock reboot of the show, Bel-Air.
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Ali obviously has her hands full with work and family, but that doesn't stop her from using her platform to advocate for women. On Instagram, she posts often about midwifery, reproductive health, and maternal health, specifically that of Black women. She's also spoken on panels at conferences to talk about the subject, as it's obviously one very close to her heart.
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