Jasmine Guy Highlights Some Major Differences Between Herself and Her “A Different World ”Character“ ”Whitley Gilbert (Exclusive)

Angela Andaloro, Genevieve UzamereThu, October 1, 2026 at 3:49 PM UTC

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Jasmine Guy in 1994 (left); and as Whitley Gilbert on ‘A Different World’Credit: Vinnie Zuffante/Getty; Nbc Tv/Kobal/Shutterstock -

Jasmine Guy was originally born in Boston and moved to Atlanta in her early childhood

The actress tells PEOPLE about the challenges of playing Whitley Gilbert, a Black Southern belle whose background was different than her own, on A Different World

In previous interviews, Guy opened up about developing Whitley’s signature accent and what it was meant to say about the character

Jasmine Guy differs greatly from Whitley Gilbert.

PEOPLE recently caught up with the actress, 64, and costars Cree Summer and Darryl M. Bell to celebrate Netflix’s A Different World revival series. During the conversation, Guy shared that she’d originally auditioned for the role of Jaleesa Vinson, which ended up going to Dawnn Lewis, on the sitcom, which first ran for six seasons from 1987 to 1993.

When Guy landed the role of Whitley Gilbert instead, the actress was excited for the challenges that came with it. “Our characters were new. I didn’t know what Black Southern belle was, so I just made stuff up, you know what I mean? We were finding them as we’d go,” Guy tells PEOPLE.

Jasmine Guy in 2000Credit: George De Sota/Liaison

As she got to know Whitley, Guy says, “I was happy. It made me have energy, and I had to find something that was further away from my personality. The accents, her attitude, it gave me things to work on.”

Guy saw Whitley’s potential to be funny early on, but she was careful to toe the line. “I knew she was funny, but I wanted her not to be like [J.J. on Good Times], ‘Dynomite,’ ” she says.

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Laughing, Guy adds, “I really thought I made her up. And then I met all these Whitleys at Martha’s Vineyard... and I was like, ‘There really are Black girls like this.’ ”

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Summer, 57, who starred as Freddie Brooks on the original series, felt similarly about her character, noting, “We hadn’t really seen a Black Bohemian character like Freddie, so that was two new facets of Black America. I mean, they exist, but they just weren’t seen.”

From left: Jasmine Guy, Dawnn Lewis and Kadeem Hardison as Whitley Gilbert, Jaleesa Vinson and Dwayne Wayne in ‘A Different World’Credit: Bob Gersny/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

“That was the great thing about A Different World. You really got to be at home and say, ‘I’m Ron Johnson, I’m Dwayne Wayne, I’m Whitley, I’m Jaleesa.’ Everybody had a character they could identify with and make ‘em wanna go to school,” she continues.

In a 2008 interview on Pop Goes the Culture, Guy talked about Whitley’s unforgettable accent andshared its origin. “As a young girl, we moved to Atlanta when I was seven. My first teacher was in the third grade and her name was Miss Pinkard. And that’s how she talked,” she revealed.

“It took me a while to adjust my ear to [it]. There were several different Southern accents down there. The Black kids had a way of speaking and the white people had a way of speaking and then there was a kind of neutral tone down there. And I imitated the hell out of everybody I met and made these little tapes of all my different characters,” she continued.

She later added, “I deliberately chose a white Southern accent because I thought it was funnier. There was no other reason. Then, after Whitney became this real person with a background that I had to justify, I said she grew up with white people and Hillman was her first Black experience, which also explained for a lot of other behaviors that didn’t fit in.”

In retrospect, Guy recognized the accent was more Georgia than Virginia. She noted, “I wish I had studied a little bit more because Whitley’s from Virginia, slightly different. But it worked.”

A Different World season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”