Television roles Guy began her television career with a non-speaking role as a dancer in seven episodes of the 1982 television series
Fame under the direction of choreographer
Debbie Allen. Guy today remains best known for her starring role as
Whitley Gilbert in the television sitcom
A Different World. A spin-off of
The Cosby Show and created by
Bill Cosby himself, the show aired from 1987 to 1993 on
NBC. Guy wrote three episodes of the show and directed one, in addition to appearing in every episode: she started as a co-star, but ended up replacing the show's original star
Lisa Bonet, who left the series. and in 1993, she played the mother of
Halle Berry's character in the CBS TV mini-series
Queen. This was based on
Alex Haley's book
Queen: The Story of an American Family, a companion volume to his earlier
Roots: The Saga of an American Family, which itself had been converted to a television mini-series. In 1995, Guy appeared as Peter Burns' love interest, Caitlin Mills, on two episodes of
Melrose Place, and in 1996, she appeared on
Living Single, playing a psychologist treating main character Khadijah for anxiety. She also played the recurring role of Kathleen, a
fallen angel, in the CBS Network drama
Touched by an Angel from 1995 to 1997. In 2001 Guy contributed her considerable talents to the film version of Anne Rice’s “
The Feast of All Saints”, a movie about the Free People of Color in pre Civil War New Orleans as the Creole Mambo Juliet Mercier. In 2002, Guy lent her voice to the
PBS math-based animated series
Cyberchase, playing Ava, the queen of the
cybersite Symmetria, and made a cameo appearance on the
Moesha spin-off
The Parkers. In 2003, Guy played Mary Estes Peters in the
HBO documentary,
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narrative, a documentary which premiered during
Black History Month. The
slave narratives were based on the WPA slave interviews conducted during the 1930s with over 2,000 former slaves. Guy starred alongside
Ellen Muth and
Mandy Patinkin in the series
Dead Like Me, created by
Bryan Fuller. The show ran 29 episodes over two seasons, in 2003 and 2004, on
Showtime. Guy played
Roxy Harvey, a
meter maid turned police officer and one of the core group of
grim reapers around which the series was based. Guy was nominated for the 2005
NAACP Image Award for
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for the role. She later starred in the feature-length series sequel
Dead Like Me: Life After Death, which was released on video in 2009 before being shown on the
Syfy channel. In 2009, Guy performed in
The People Speak, a documentary that used dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian
Howard Zinn's ''
A People's History of the United States. A broad look at civil rights issues in America, The People Speak
was executive produced by and seen on The History Channel. In 2010, she was seen in the second season of the Lifetime comedy series Drop Dead Diva'' as a judge in the episode titled "Last Year's Model," and from 2009 to 2017, Guy had a recurring role in
The CW's series
The Vampire Diaries. In that program, Guy played Sheila "Grams" Bennett, the grandmother of Bonnie (
Katerina Graham), who proved to be a descendant of
Salem Witches. Both shows were filmed in the Atlanta area. In late 2017, she appeared in the Lifetime Christmas movie
Secret Santa. In the early 2020s, she appeared on the Amazon Prime series
Harlem as the mother of one of the protagonists.
Film roles Guy made her film debut in 1988 in
Spike Lee's musical-drama film
School Daze. She played the role of Dina, a member of the light-skinned, straight-haired African American women of Gamma Ray, a women's auxiliary to the Gamma Phi Gamma fraternity.
Stage In 1987, Guy had a starring role in the off-Broadway hit musical
Beehive, before traveling to France to appear in a similar musical review.
Blues came on the heels of Guy's held-over run in True Colors' ''
Miss Evers' Boys,
which co-starred TC Carson of Living Single''. Guy directed the world premiere of
I Dream in July 2010 on the Alliance Stage of the Woodruff Arts Centre in Atlanta. Also in 2010, Guy was a member of the cast of the
Alabama Shakespeare Festival and the
Alliance Theatre Company co-production of Pearl Cleage's
The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One-Hundred Years. The production ran September 24 through October 3 at the Festival in
Montgomery, Alabama, before moving to Atlanta's Alliance Theatre for performances October 20 through November 14. In early 2011, Guy directed
George C. Wolfe's The Colored Museum for True Colors, and in June 2011, Guy costarred with
Kenny Leon in their production of
Sam Shepard's play
Fool For Love at The Balzer Theater at Herren's in Atlanta, Georgia. In August 2010, Guy had joined
Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre Company in an off stage role as the company's Producing Director. In announcing the hire,
True Colors said Guy's full-time position would be both administrative and artistic, and both local and national. Guy continues to contribute to the company on stage as well. ==Music career==