I had lovely parents who were encouraging and supportive. Nicole says she was greeted on set by the cast the same way. “I really racked my brain to think if I’ve ever met anybody like her before. And without giving away spoilers, Lauren seems likely to be granted more screen time in Season 2. Punky Brewster Just Can't Resist Freddie Prinze Jr. — Watch Trailer. As thrilled as I am to see a queer couple normalized on a family show like “Punky Brewster,” I think it’s important to really talk about the things that make us different. For Nicole, it meant discovering a passion for pottery, a hobby she had tried but never fell in love with before this year. “The first time you meet her is at a club when they’re going out to see this band or something. Like many people, Nicole and her partner, Claire J. So now that I’m an adult, I realize I can be a Punky now. We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote! But at the same time, I admired Punky. Jasika Nicole, best known for her roles on Fringe and The Good Doctor, will play Cherie’s lawyer girlfriend Lauren. And I feel like a lot of queer people of color, we’ve grown up learning to adapt to our circumstances and find the humanity in other people. Feb. 10 (UPI) --Jasika Nicole has joined the cast of Peacock's Punky Brewster revival.The 40-year-old actress confirmed in an Instagram post Wednesday that she … There’s no one way that a family looks anymore. She also received the chosen family message from her own home. Assuming “Punky Brewster” gets picked up for Season 2, how would you like Cherie and Lauren to continue to evolve as a couple? The audience meets Lauren about halfway through the season. I didn’t realize, until I was an adult and I had come out, that I could have been the representation I needed as a kid. So that’s my wish. ", Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter. Today, I am delighted to share this interview with Jasika Nicole, star of “Punky Brewster” and “The Good Doctor”. Queer people already know what it’s like to be queer, but straight people don’t always understand that. “Obviously, that is a really important tenet of the LGBTQIA community anyway.”. Also, Punky and her ex-husband, Travis [played by, 'Saved By The Bell' Co-Stars Mourn Dustin Diamond Following His Death, Why Soleil Moon Frye Is Crying Happy Tears, 'Full House' Cast Is Still A Family, 30 Years And A Revival Later. By the early ’90s, actress and maker Jasika Nicole (“Fringe,” “The Good Doctor” and “Punky Brewster”) already cornered the market on radical and resourceful creativity: She had lengthy and rich manuscripts about cats; a trove of pencil-drawn illustrations; and a commercial jingle writing about fictional products, played to the tunes of a used organ piano […] Jasika Nicole, best known for her roles on Fringe and The Good Doctor, will play Cherie’s lawyer girlfriend Lauren. Jasika Nicole on starring in the Punky Brewster reboot Punky Brewster, one of the most iconic sitcoms of the 80s, is back with a reboot on Peacock. I’m so happy ‘Punky Brewster’ is as gay as it is right now.”. The queer star talks playing Lauren, Cherie Johnson’s girlfriend and an “unofficial auntie” in a revival of the ‘80s sitcom. Jasika Nicole Talks Being a Part of Punky Brewster's Queer Family The queer star talks playing Lauren, Cherie Johnson’s girlfriend and an “unofficial auntie” in a revival of the ‘80s sitcom. “My parents weren’t married, and they were separated since I was really little, and my dad was Black and my mom was white, so I always felt like I was, for so many reasons, I just felt like such an outsider,” she says. Punky’s “family already knows that there are lots of different ways for people to love each other, and this is just one of them,” she says. There was a part of me that felt like it was a privilege to be able to be Punky, to be able to go out and be your own person and not care what other people thought about you. Within the LGBTQ community, chosen family is a huge theme in the way we live our lives, the way we create the group of people we surround ourselves with. “I loved Punky Brewster!” Nicole says. Both the original series and the revival speak to the power of chosen families. Of course I’m also a Lauren. For more than a decade, Jasika Nicole has been a prolific presence on television, with acclaimed performances on “Fringe” and “The Good Doctor,” among other hit shows. It’s like they want to have a queer storyline represented, but they don’t want to go too far and make it ‘too gay’ or something like that. “I keep telling everybody ‘when I was a kid, I was a Cherie because I was such a rule follower, and I wanted to be a Punky because she was cool.’ She was dynamic, and she marched to the beat of her own drum.”, Nicole was drawn to the show largely because of its themes about chosen family. Still, it took the revival of a classic 1980s franchise to deliver what could be her most personal role to date. I feel very comfortable with who I am and how I present myself to the world, so I guess it wasn’t all terrible. ‘Punky Brewster’ Revival Gives Jasika Nicole A Chance To Showcase Black Queer Love March 9, 2021 admin Entertainment 0 For more than a decade, Jasika Nicole has been a prolific presence on television, with acclaimed performances on “ Fringe ” and “ The Good Doctor ,” among other hit shows. “Queerness exists in kids’ lives. But her big news has been joining the cast of Peacock’s new Punky Brewster reboot as Lauren, the girlfriend of Cherie Johnson, Punky’s best friend from the original series, played once again by the actress of the same name. ©2021 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. “I’m always excited to go in for queer roles,” said the 40-year-old Alabama native, who is also an illustrator and sculptor. Actress Jasika Nicole talks about her LGBTQ role on "Punky Brewster" now streaming on Peacock TV. The actress is set to join Soleil Moon Frye and Cherie Johnson in Peacock’s Punky Brewster revival which will debut on the streamer on February 25. What gave you the confidence to overcome the adversity you faced and succeed as an artist when you were growing up in Alabama? Jasika Nicole is ready for some Punky Power! It’s a responsibility I’m happy to have. I grew up a biracial kid in Birmingham, Alabama, so I stood out just walking down the street and I hated it. Still, it took the revival of a classic 1980s franchise to deliver what could be her most personal role to date. Lauren is “Cherie’s girlfriend,” she says, “but is also a little bit of a surrogate auntie to the kids.”, It’s not just her character who was welcomed as a part of the family. TVLine Items: Snowpiercer Adds Panjabi, WandaVision Doc and More Jasika Nicole recently played her first-ever queer role on network television in the reboot of Punky Brewster, something she found a bit shocking considering she is herself a queer woman who has been acting in several television shows for many years. How did that message speak to you as a queer woman? But the very second time that you get to see her, it’s at Punky’s house with all of Punky’s kids and Punky’s ex-husband,” Nicole says. March 9, 2021 Entertainment Comments Off on ‘Punky Brewster’ Revival Gives Jasika Nicole A Chance To Showcase Black Queer Love For more than a decade, Jasika Nicole has been a prolific presence on television, with acclaimed performances on … That would make sense within the “Punky” universe, obviously, and it’s always different when same-sex couples are doing things many heterosexual couples do. Jasika Nicole grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and she studied musical theatre, dance and studio art at Catawba College in Salisbury, North … I’d be interested to know if things stand in the way of Cherie and Lauren trying to bring a kid into their life. “It was about challenging the ideas of what a nuclear family is supposed to look like, and showing that you can find family anywhere,” she says. “Historically, though, they’ve tended to go to straight actors. Now that we’ve come back to the show a few decades later, we’ve incorporated queer people. Lauren is your first queer role. Photo credit: Robin Roemer Jasika Nicole is beaming about her new role on Peacock's upcoming Punky Brewster reboot where she plays Lauren, the girlfriend of original series cast member Cherie Johnson.. Nicole tells ABC Audio that it was refreshing to be on a series where being in a same-sex relationship didn't need a special explanation. (laughs) I’m my own character in the “Punky”-verse, which is such a thrill to be able to say. I think there are good people who are police officers [but] they are unable to change the way the institution works single-handedly. That’s a huge way that families exist today ― parents might not live in the same house as their children. I think when you grow up different in whatever way you are different, you learn to have compassion for everybody. I want Black and brown audience members seeing me and knowing I’m trying to be a good representation of them and their values and what’s important to those communities. Frye and Johnson will reprise their roles as Punky and Cherie respectively in the upcoming revival of the ’80s sitcom which followed the titular bright young girl raised by a foster dad. Part of HuffPost Entertainment. Regarding working with Cherie Johnson, Nicole lights up. Like “Fuller House” and the “Saved by the Bell” revival, the new “Punky Brewster” is fan service for audiences who grew up with the original, which aired from 1984 to 1988. “She is just so warm, and it’s just very sincere.”, Most of all, she’s excited to get to play a queer character on a family-friendly and family-centric show. While living in quarantine, actress Jasika Nicole (Fringe, The Good Doctor) is finding ways to be happy. And if it’s just some version of me who’s living in Birmingham, Alabama, who is seeing themselves for the first time … I can’t tell you how powerful that is to me. As a kid in the ’80s, I didn’t have people I could look to and see what [my] life might look like. Punky Brewster. Nicole plays Lauren, Cherie Johnson’s girlfriend and an “unofficial auntie” to Punky’s kids. In an interview with HuffPost, Nicole spoke about her connection to the “Punky” universe and its emphasis on unconventional families and why she sees playing her first queer role as both a responsibility and a professional milestone. Jasika Nicole on Unconventional Families in. Today is National Voter Registration Day! I recently came to the decision that I don’t want to play a police officer, because I don’t support the narrative that the police force can be a force for good. I want to feel proud of the characters I play, and I want other people to feel proud, too, because there are not a lot of Black queer women in this industry. Also, Punky and her ex-husband, Travis [played by Freddie Prinze Jr.], are no longer together, but they’re still friends and are co-parenting. As a queer person yourself, did you feel any responsibility to portray her in any specific way because of that? I’ve been one of a handful for a really long time. Whether they identify as [queer] or not, there’s going to be queer adults around them.… It should be as normalized for people around the world as it is for me in my actual life.”, Act Locally to End Anti-Black, Anti-LGBTQ Police Violence, Tennessee Will Mandate Warning Signs for Trans-Friendly Restrooms, GOP Oklahoma Governor: Biden Caused Chick-fil-A Sauce Shortage, 'Changing the Game' Tells Heartfelt Stories of Trans Teen Athletes, NCAA Allows Games in States With Anti-Trans Laws, This Lesbian Chef Won Over New Orleans Foodies: Taste Why, Miss Universe Contestants Use Fashion to Protest Racism, Homophobia. ‘Punky Brewster’ Revival Gives Jasika Nicole A Chance To Showcase Black Queer Love 5 mins ago For more than a decade, Jasika Nicole has been a prolific presence on television, with acclaimed performances on “Fringe” and “The Good Doctor,” among other hit shows. Jasika Nicole (right) stars as Lauren in Peacock’s “Punky Brewster” revival, which premiered Feb. 25. 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