Dawnn Lewis (born August 13, 1961 in Brooklyn, NY) is an African-American Actress and Singer. She is best known to TV audiences as College Student Jalessa Vinson-Taylor for five seasons on the NBC sitcom A Different World (1987-1992), in which she also co-wrote the show's theme song. She once appeared as a celebrity guest on The $25,000 Pyramid.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York to parents Carl and Joyce Lewis, who are of African-American and Guyanese descent. Dawnn began singing at the age of 4 and acting at 11. She graduated from High School of Music and Art (now known as Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School) at age 16. After high school, she attended the University of Miami and in 1982, she graduated cum laude with a major in Musical Theatre and a minor in Journalism.
In 1987, Lewis landed her first major TV gig and what would become her most notable work to TV audiences, Jalessa Vinson (later Vinson-Taylor) on the NBC sitcom A Different World (debuting on September 24). The series was a spin-off of The Cosby Show as it originally centered around the character of Denise Huxtable (played by Lisa Bonet, first appearing as the character on The Cosby Show) and the life of students at the fictional historically African-American Hillman College in the state of Virginia, inspired by student life at Howard University.
Dawnn's character Jalessa Vinson is a 26-year-old divorcee. Enrolling at Hillman College, majoring in Business Management. She resides in the college dorm (Gilbert Hall) with her roommates Denise (played by Bonet) and transfer student Maggie Lauten (played by Marisa Tomei) during her sophomore years. Jalessa worked part-time at the Hillman Library and was elected resident dorm director of Gilbert Hall by her peers. Jalessa spent her summer vacation in Greece with Maggie while Denise returned to her hometown of Brooklyn (Lisa Bonet departed from the series after the first season as she returned to The Cosby Show) and returned to Hillman College to a new roommate (Marisa Tomei was written out of the series), the free-spirited Winifred "Freddie" Brooks (played by Cree Summer) during her junior and senior years and later moved into an off-campus apartment complex with her arch-nemesis-turned-friend, Southern Belle Whitley Gilbert (played by Jasmine Guy).
TV viewers also saw Jalessa display her vocal talents on the show. In the season two episode titled "Three Girls Three", Jalessa and Whitley put their differences aside as they teamed up for a singing audition, singing backup for Gladys Knight, who guest starred as herself. Jalessa and Whitley are joined by a third member, a wanna-be opera diva named Angela Atkins, who ends up upstaging them and is one of three chosen to perform onstage with Knight. The episode ends with a dream sequence of Knight performing her 1987 Grammy Award-Winning single Love Overboard with Jalessa and Whitley singing background and the wanna-be opera diva tied up and gagged to the humor of the studio audience. In the season five episode titled "It's Showtime at Hillman", Jalessa sings Paula Abdul's 1988 hit single Straight Up as part of an audition for a telethon to raise money for a worthy cause.
Jalessa also found romance on the series. First she entered into a serious relationship with Walter Oakes (played by Sinbad), co-dorm director of Gilbert Hall and later become engaged but couple halted their wedding at the altar and mutually went their separate ways (Sinbad left the series after the fourth season). Jalessa later becomes involved with and married Colonel Bradford Taylor (played by Glynn Turman) in a surprise elopement and becomes the stepmother to Colonel Taylor's two children Suzanne and Terrence from a previous relationship and later gave birth their only child, a daughter, Imani.
After five seasons on A Different World, Lewis left the series and her character disappeared off the canvas without any explanation. In addition to her appearing on A Different World, Dawnn also co-wrote the show's theme song with show creator Bill Cosby and music composer Stu Gardner and performed by three different artists: Phoebe Snow (season one), Aretha Franklin (seasons two through five & most notable version), and Vocal group Boys II Men (season six).
During the sixth and final season of A Different World, ratings went down dramatically as NBC put the show on a brief hiatus as the peacock network later announced the show's cancellation with the show returning for it's one-hour series finale on May 8, 1993, episode titled "When One Door Closes...".
After she left her role of Jalessa on A Different World, Lewis went on to co-star as Robin Dumars on the ABC sitcom Hangin' With Mr. Cooper (debuting September 22, 1992) alongside Comedian Mark Curry and former 21 Jump Street actress and singer Holly Robinson-Peete (then credited as Holly Robinson). Dawnn and Robinson-Peete, along with R&B Female pop group En Vogue performed the theme song for the first season. Lewis departed from the series after it's first season.
Dawnn has also appeared in a number of supporting roles in both TV and feature films. She had a supporting role as Cheryl Spade in the 1988 film I'm Gonna Get You, Sucka, starring Keenan Ivory Wayans. She also portrayed legendary Jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald in the 1992 CBS TV movie Stompin' at the Savoy, which starred her A Different World co-star Jasmine Guy. Other guest starring roles on shows include The Steve Harvey Show, The Parent 'Hood, The Jamie Foxx Show, Nash Bridges, Girlfriends, and NYPD Blue.
She has also lend her voice to a number of animated series and video games. She was the voice of Sheeva in the animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm as well providing the voice of Detective Terri Lee on the animated series Spider-Man (both in 1995). Lewis also voiced Granny Grim on The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and has also done voice work as LaBarbara in Futurama and voiced a number of characters on the Cartoon Network The Boondocks.
On the Game Show circuit, Dawnn has made two appearances. First she appeared as a celebrity guest on The $25,000 Pyramid in which one of the episodes, one of the subjects in the first round was titled ironically enough "A Different World". She later appeared as a celebrity panelist on the NBC Game Show Super Password.
In August 2006, Nick At Nite aired a week-long marathon showing episodes of A Different World. Dawnn reunited with co-stars Jasmine Guy, Lisa Bonet, Kadeem Hardison, Darryl M. Bell, Sinbad, and Cree Summer for short vignettes that provided a glimpse of the current state of their characters. Nick At Nite titled the week-long marathon "Hillman College Reunion". Later that October, she appeared on the stage as Deloris Van Cartier in the Peter Schneider play Sister Act the Musical, which opened at the Pasadena Playhouse (Whoopi Goldberg, who guest starred on an episode of A Different World in 1991, portrayed Deloris Van Cartier in the film version of Sister Act in 1992 and the sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit in 1993). In December, Lewis appeared in a small, non-speaking role in the film adaptation and box office powerhouse film Dreamgirls where she played Melba Early, the wife of R&B soul singer James "Thunder" Early, played by Comedian and actor Eddie Murphy, who won a Golden Globe and received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal in the film.
In 2009, she appeared on the CW series One Tree Hill as Denise Fields followed by a minor recurring role as Lauren's mother on the ABC Family series The Secret Life of the American Teenager. She also made to move to daytime television as she landed a recurring role on the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives as Dr. Knapp, a role she played from 2012-2013.
In 2014, she reunited again with her A Different World co-stars Jasmine Guy, Cree Summer, Kadeem Hardison, Sinbad, and Darryl M. Bell for Oprah: Where Are They Now ? on the OWN network. Recently, the cast reunited again for a special "Where Are They Now?" week on Steve Harvey's self-titled talk show in which Lewis was noticeably absent from.
She has only married once. In 2004, she married former NBA player Johnny Newman and they divorced in 2006. She has no children.