Tempestt Bledsoe From ‘The Cosby Show’ Is 48 And Replaced A Popular Home Makeover Host
If there was some juicy gossip, you could count on Vanessa Huxtable to dig it up. Usually, she was learning about trouble her siblings caused while she herself stayed out of it, but Vanessa could give her parents trouble too. What about Tempestt Bledsoe, a key part to the heart of The Cosby Show? What did she get up to after this formative sitcom ended?
Tempestt Bledsoe was born on August 1, 1973, in Chicago Illinois, but ended up attending college at New York University, specifically Stern School of Business where she earned a finance degree. Sounds involved? It was, and it is a glimpse into the personal discipline she exercised throughout her career, even as a child actor. Said acting career began in 1984 and she was off to a meaningful start, landing the role of Vanessa in the NBC series The Cosby Show when she was just 11.
This early start in the industry worked out well for the rising star and the producers’ vision for the show; the characters were intended to mirror real-life Cosby counterparts to an extent, though they were the Huxtable family. It turned out Bledsoe was born on the same day as Ensa Cosby. Other cast members follow a similar trend; Lisa Bonet and Malcolm-Jamal Warner were born a year after and before their Cosby counterparts respectively.
On The Cosby Show, Bledsoe helped play out some of the important plotlines key in any family-oriented series, even a sitcom, complete with peer pressure, romance, and forgiveness. After this practically tailor-made experience, Bledsoe kept acting, and her career remains unique for not hitting any significant bumps in the road, whether those be typecasting or unwise decisions. Her parents are credited with keeping her on a course to only focus on improving her acting and not focusing on the invasive attention child stars can inspire. So, she balanced her thirst for knowledge with more acting jobs, and even hosted a program of her own, known as The Tempestt Bledsoe Show, produced by Dick Clark and Columbia TriStar Television.
