While Will Smith is now an A-list actor, his acting career really started off with The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1990. The show was a hit for NBC and lasted a total of six seasons. Throughout the show’s history, there were several celebrity appearances like Tyra Banks, who had a recurring role on the show starting in season 4.
Other celebrities had more of a cameo role in the show, based on their pop culture status at the time. Regardless, of their popularity, there were a ton of celebrities on The Fresh Prince you might have forgotten about. Here are 10 People You Forgot Appeared On The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Oprah
Oprah Winfrey is often considered one of the most influential women in America and it's not hard to see why. Oprah is not only a famous talk show host, but her career has spanned into politics, philanthropy, and even spiritual leadership. With as popular as Oprah is, it's not hard to understand why she was chosen to be at the center of one of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s episodes.
Oprah appears in the episode “A Night at the Oprah” from season 3, where the Banks family is invited onto the Oprah Winfrey Show. In 1992, Oprah was in the hey-day of her talk show career, so it makes sense why she got a cameo on the sitcom.
Malcolm Jamal Warner & Raven-Symoné
Malcolm Jamal Warner and Raven-Symoné’s both appeared on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but they are more known for their role on The Cosby Show. Warner appeared in the episode “Cased Up”, where he plays a boyfriend of Hillary’s. Eric ends up suing Will after they get into a car accident.
Symoné on the other hand appears in a later episode of season 2 called “Vying For Attention” as the daughter of Vy Smith’s boyfriend. Both had small, yet memorable appearances on the show, especially since The Cosby Show ended the same year they appeared on The Fresh Prince.
Chris Rock
Chris Rock is one of the most well-known comedians in Hollywood, but he also had a small role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the season 6 episode “Get a Job”. Rock plays two characters, Maurice and Jasmine Perry. By the time of his appearance in 1995, Rock was still mostly known for his stand-up comedy and Saturday Night Live, but he was still a welcome surprise to the series.
Since then, Rock has appeared in films like Top Five, The Longest Yard, and Grown Ups. Rock’s career has also taken an interesting turn as of late, as he is starring and producing a reboot of Saw.
Jay Leno
Jay Leno is one of the most famous talk show hosts of Hollywood. Leno hosted The Tonight Show from 1992 to 2014. Leno was at the center of the episode in season 5 called “Will’s Up the Dirt Road”. In the episode, Will get’s sued by Leno for slander, which causes Will to infiltrate the set of The Tonight Show to set the records straight.
Leno has since retired from The Tonight Show, but is still active in Hollywood. Today he is mostly known for his show Jay Leno’s Garage, where he talks about cars.
Queen Latifah
Queen Latifah is a famous hip-hop singer, but she also is known for her acting. Latifah is most known for her roles in Taxi, Hairspray, Bringing Down the House, and Chicago, the latter of which earned her her first Oscar nomination. Latifah actually appeared on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air not once, but twice.
She first appeared in the season 1 finale “Working It Out” as a demanding actress who hires Hillary as an assistant. She then appears again in season 2 in the episode “She Ain’t Heavy”, playing a love interest to Will named Dee Dee Williams.
Regis Philbin
Regis Philbin is one of the most recognizable talk-show hosts around due to his work on the Live with Regis and Kelly show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and The Regis Philbin Show. With his celebrity status rising even higher in the ‘80s and ‘90s, he of course had to make an appearance on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Philbin appears in the latter half of the final season in the episode “I, Stank Hole in One”. Philbin appears as a talk show host that is looking for a new co-lead. Hillary accepts the position, but it isn’t quite what she expected it would be.
Don Cheadle
Don Cheadle definitely wasn’t a big celebrity in the early ‘90s, but he is now. Cheadle is mostly known for playing James Rhodes, a.k.a. War Machine, in the Avengers films. In 1990 however, he played the character Ice Tray on one of the earlier episodes of season 1 called “Homeboy, Sweet Homeboy”.
Tray is one of Will’s friends from Philadelphia that comes to visit, who Hillary becomes attracted to. Cheadle would go on to act in movies such as Crash, Traitor, and Hotel Rwanda, the latter of which earned him his first Oscar nomination.
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner did a lot during his lifetime, but he is of course most well-known for founding the Playboy magazine. Because of this, Hefner had a controversial lifestyle, but he was still always an iconic face in pop culture.
In 1993, Hefner appeared in the season 4 episode “Fresh Prince After Dark”, which shows Will deciding whether he should go to the Playboy Mansion or on a date with Jackie. Hefner appeared in a number of movies and TV shows over the years, most of which had to do with his Playboy legacy. Hefner passed away in September 2017 at the age of 91.
Jaleel White
The name Jaleel White may not sound super familiar, but the name Steve Urkel probably does. White appeared as Urkel in nearly every episode of the sitcom Family Matters, which aired for 215 episodes from 1989 to 1998. Well into his run on Family Matters, White appeared in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the episode “Not with My Cousin You Don’t”.
The episode saw Ashley (Tatyana Ali) become romantically involved with a boy named Derek (White). White has continued to voice Steve Urkel in different projects over the years while making brief appearances in other shows like Raven’s Home and Drunk History.
Evander Holyfield
Evander Holyfield is one of the most well-known boxers around, making history as the only person to become the undisputed champion in more than one weight class. Holyfield even won a bronze medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics. Holyfield has appeared in movies like Summer of Sam, Arthur and Grudge Match, but he also made an appearance on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the ‘90s for the episode “Deck the Halls”.
In the episode, Holyfield has an issue with the Christmas lights that Will put up and comes to the mansion to confront him about them, with Will not knowing it was Holyfield he yelled at on the phone. Fun fact, the wardrobe department put a bulky jacket on Evander to make him look bigger because it actually looked like Will could take Evander.