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Moesha was a popular television series for many Black households in the ‘90s. Starring Brandy as Moesha, the sitcom focused on the character as she navigated life as a teenager in Los Angeles. Viewers tuned in every week to see Moesha and her friends deal with peer pressure, schooling, and dating all while trying not to get in trouble with Moesha’s dad and step-mom, who was also their principal, played by Sheryl Lee Ralph. One of Moesha’s friends was Kim Parker, played by Countess Vaughn.
While Kim’s character was stylish and had a talent for singing, she was constantly at the center of fat jokes. In a recent interview with fellow actress Cherie Johnson, Countess opened up about her time on Moesha and how she was self-conscious about her body.
“And I get mad at myself because I was a lot smaller when I was on Moesha, and they made me the fat kid,” she said. “The jokes. Even the first episode… I forget what the line was, ‘oh, it’s baby fat,’ and whats-her-name goes, ‘no, it’s fat, baby.’”
She also revealed that she got butt injections following her time on The Parkers due to insecurities.
“They used to clown me on the show. They’d be like, ‘you’re a Black girl and Jenna von Oÿ’s butt is bigger than yours and she’s a white girl,” she said. “And that used to bother the heck out of me. That used to be the joke, all the time.”
Jenna, Countess’s co-star, played her best friend Stevie Van Lowe on the sitcom.
“Because I’m a Black girl and I’m supposed to have a big butt,” she continued. “You know, you fall into these stereotypes. You feel like, ‘I’m supposed to have this.’ And then you’d see all the attention she would get for having it. They would lose their minds. I’m like, ‘ass is everything.’”
When Countess was on Hollywood Divas, she shared that she overheard a conversation about her while working on the set of 227 and alluded to it being the start of her body image struggles. “One of the characters stopped liking me because I was fat, Black, and ugly,” she recalled.
She added, “That kinda painted the way I saw myself from then on at the age of 8 and 9.”
Since her time on Hollywood Divas and Moesha and The Parkers hitting Netflix in 2020, many people have come to Countess’s defense after seeing how her character was portrayed on the beloved sitcoms.
Countess Vaughn from The Parker’s full interview
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