Brown, you see, always wanted to be an actress., but for a while, it seemed like life—which included becoming a mom with husband Chance to daughter Choyce and son Quest—may have gotten in the way. As it turns out, though, all life was really doing was just giving her more material to work with once she became the star she knew she was destined to be. Because, if Brown’s name rings a bell today, acting could be just one of many reason reason why. In less than two years, the 42-year-old has not only seen her screen credits gain major momentum—you may have caught her on the Will & Grace reboot, or enjoyed her recurring role on The Chi—but she’s also created an entirely new career for herself as a major social media star, doling out life advice, motivational insights and vegan recipes to her millions of followers, who often refer to her as Auntie Tabitha. Her online presence is so powerful, in fact, that she won a 2021 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Social Media Personality. Oh, yeah: She’s also nurturing a burgeoning publishing career and, as of New Year’s 2021, has a vegan haircare line, Donna’s Recipe. (Donna is the name she gave her fabulous ‘do.) https://www.instagram.com/tv/CJhZVGNnot9/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=1505d7d4-ba23-45c2-b2dd-a61d7280066e For all that Brown has achieved, however, none of it came easily or fast—but her timeline toward success wound up suiting her just fine.
How did Tabitha Brown get her start?
Brown originally set out to study fashion design in college in Miami before realizing that acting was her true calling. She moved to California at 19 with then-boyfriend Chance, but didn’t have time for (nor luck with) auditions. The couple moved back to North Carolina, planning to stay for a year to save up some cash, when Brown got pregnant with her first child. Given Hollywood’s inherent ageism, even the ever-positive Brown feared that she may have sacrificed her shot at stardom to become Choyce’s mom—an insecurity that crept into Brown’s mind despite her frequent acknowledgments to herself that she is enough (and, as she so frequently tells her social media followers these days, so are you). “I felt like I missed my opportunity to pursue acting or entertainment,” she recalls today in an exclusive interview with Parade.com. “I convinced myself to believe that for quite some time, because I’m from a small town in North Carolina, you get married, have a house and car and live happily ever after. You have a baby early, honey, you go to work! I convinced myself that I had to be OK with that.” That worked… for a little while. But Brown couldn’t help believing that God had other plans for her to be an actress… eventually. One of her first big steps toward that goal? When Choyce was a year old, Brown heard on the radio about an open call to host a late-night show for a WB affiliate in North Carolina. She went into the audition, which was held at a restaurant, completely blind. “I had no preparation, I didn’t know what I was going into,” she says. Still, she got the job. For many folks, that stepping stone may have convinced them to keep going full-force and nonstop. But for Brown, landing that gig actually proved something else: That she could make progress toward her goals on her own schedule and that success doesn’t have to be achieved overnight. As she explains, “Because that happened early on in my life, later in my life—when I decided, 10 and a half years later, to have my son—I told my husband, ‘If it is meant for me to be in this industry, after my son is a year [old], it will be waiting for me.’” Other obstacles cropped up along the way. Brown, Chance and Choyce relocated back to California, only to learn six months later that Brown’s mother had been diagnosed with ALS; she frequently returned to North Carolina to help care for her mother until her passing in 2007. After Quest was born, Brown started experiencing debilitating health issues, which—despite plenty of doctor visits and medical tests—never went away until Brown, encouraged by Choyce, adopted a vegan diet.
How did Tabitha Brown get famous?
That lifestyle change, as Brown’s fans know, helped make her a social media star during the COVID-19 pandemic—both for her user-friendly vegan recipes, as well as her soothing, honey-drenched Southern lilt and her sweet, encouraging messages to viewers. If it weren’t for the adversity she faced, Brown may not have had the joyous, infectious outlook that made her feel like a warm hug for the entire internet. “For the most part yes, I am positive, I think because I’ve been through so many bad times,” she explains. “I made a decision that if I got through those, I’m going to choose happiness, I’m going to choose joy, and I’m always going to look for the positive. I just feel like there’s always something good to find, right? There’s always something in every situation that’s meant to teach us something. Everything has a purpose, even bad [things]. I just choose to find out what the purpose is.” That positivity is just one aspect of Brown’s “business,” and one more facet of her catchphrase: “Because it’s my business.” She admits that she never set out to make that phrase a mantra and didn’t even realize how often she said it until viewers started leaving comments about it on her videos. “The reason I say ‘because it’s my business’ is because I believe it,” she says. “What I do is my business. What you do is your business. My life is my business. Your life is your business. And if you take care of your life, you’ll always be in good business.” Though her life didn’t take the typical entertainer route, Brown no longer feels pressure to tick off lists of accomplishments on a more typical schedule. After all, people already adore her, especially Gen Z. “It’s amazing. It’s mind-blowing for me at times that the very thing I hid for so long, thinking that I wasn’t enough—it’s confirmation that I’m always enough, and that I never had try to be anybody else other than me,” she says. “To receive that love, it confirms that. It makes me smile, it gives me joy. I love it. I just love it.” She continues, “Living your life, you build character within you. Going through things, being on my own journey, not focusing on one particular thing but allowing life to happen, it all built something inside of me that is worth sharing.” Now, she adds, “I can use everything in both careers. I can use all of that to develop a character, or I can use that to have empathy and sympathy for people, be relatable, to help people understand themselves and me. And it’s amazing! I never thought it would be this way, but it is. And I’m alright with it!” As for exactly what her business is, Brown’s answer is both as simple and as heartfelt as you’d expect. “Spreading love to people and making people feel like they have a friend in me.” Next, find out everything you need to know about FOX’s new second chances series The Big Leap!
