The sitcom enjoyed significant success during its run, spanning five seasons and earning an Emmy Award for outstanding writing in a comedy series. Whether you were a fan during its original airing in the early 2000s or discovered it later via streaming platforms, you might be curious about the journey of “The Bernie Mac Show” cast since the series concluded in 2006.

Tragically, Bernie Mac himself passed away at the age of 50, just two years after the show ended, joining a somber list of comedians who left us too soon. However, his fellow cast members have continued to thrive in their careers over the past decade.

On-screen, some of television’s most beloved sitcom moms share a common trait: their unwavering support for their children, despite often being pushed to their limits. This is certainly true of Wanda, Bernie’s wife on “The Bernie Mac Show,” who embraces the role of raising her nieces and nephew with open arms—sometimes even more eagerly than Bernie himself.

Something that all of the best sitcom moms in TV history have in common is that their patience is frequently pushed to its limits, but they nonetheless always come out on the other side being their kids’ biggest fans. That is certainly true of Wanda, Bernie’s wife on “The Bernie Mac Show,” who takes on the responsibility of raising her nieces and nephew as her own without hesitation — even more enthusiastically than Bernie himself a lot of the time.

Wanda is played by Kellita Smith in her first starring role on a television show. That being said, she was already a small screen vet by that point, playing recurring characters on “Martin,” “Sister Sister,” “Malcom & Eddie,” and “The Jamie Foxx Show.” Since “The Bernie Mac Show,” she has appeared as a main or recurring cast member on “The First Family,” “In the Cut,” “Z Nation,” and Netflix’s acclaimed 2022 miniseries “From Scratch.” 

Smith has also had a presence in movies, including roles in “House Party 3,” “Roll Bounce,” “Feel the Noise,” and “Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No” — the last of which featured appearances by many film and TV stars of the ’90s and 2000s. 

The kids on “The Bernie Mac Show” had a troubled life before Bernie and Wanda took them in. As a result, oldest child Vanessa — aka Nessa — often had to be something of a parent to her younger siblings, which isn’t a fair position for a child to be in. So it’s tough to blame her having the defense mechanism attitude that she has, and for being so combative towards Bernie initially. But Nessa softens as the show goes on, and comes to realize that Bernie and Wanda aren’t like the previous adults in her life — they truly do love her and want to protect her.

Actor Camille Winbush was rightfully nominated for and won numerous awards for her portrayal of Nessa on “The Bernie Mac Show.” It actually wasn’t the first show she ever got awards recognition for, as she had previously been nominated for her role in the short-lived NBC sitcom “Minor Adjustments” back in 1995. Her most prominent post-“Bernie Mac Show” role has been the recurring character of Lauren Travis on “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.”

More recently, her screen credits have been voice work in animation, an avenue she first explored when she did a few episodes of the Nickelodeon show “Recess” just before her “The Bernie Mac Show” breakthrough.

What’s a sitcom without the silly best friend? On “The Bernie Mac Show,” that job was filled by W.B., always as ready with a joke as he is to dispense questionable relationship advice. But he’s as loyal as you could hope for in a friend, and he is a much deeper and more important character than just someone who delivers punchlines. That’s a lot more than you can say for actor Reginald Ballard’s other well known wacky pal role, when he was part of the cast of “Martin” as the lazy, freeloading, only seldom seen Bruh-Man. 

Between “The Bernie Mac Show” and “Martin,” Ballard had played a recurring role on “Caroline in the City.” And concurrent to his time as W.B., the actor was pulling double duty on “The Parkers.” Ballard also appeared in the movies “Class Act,” “Menace II Society,” and “Horrible Bosses.” Most recently, he played small roles on the shows “Raven’s Home,” “Boosters L.A.,” and “Family Reunion,” as well as the 2025 film “He’s Fine… But is He Saved?” 

Another of Bernie’s friends in “The Bernie Mac Show” is Kelly. He admittedly doesn’t play as prominent of a role as W.B., and even less is known about his life when he isn’t hanging out with Bernie, but he still had a prominent ongoing presence in the show. One of the angles of the series was to show Bernie trying to balance his previous life of being childfree and able to have all the hangouts and poker nights he wanted, and his newfound responsibilities as a guardian to his nieces and nephew. And that previous life was hinted at through Bernie’s relationships with his friends.

Kelly is played by Michael Ralph, whose first prominent role was the recurring character of Spencer on “A Different World.” He followed that up with playing Leon on another comedian’s self-titled show, “The Sinbad Show,” in 1994. He was also a lead character on the short-lived sitcom “Cleghorne!” as the titular character’s ex-husband. After “The Bernie Mac Show,” Ralph has continued to appear in television shows and movies, but he has shifted more towards voice work in not only film and television but also video games.

Some of Ralph’s most recent work in the realm of voice acting include the movie “Frozen II,” the TV show “What If…?”, and the video game “Spider-Man 2.” He is also the sister of “Abbott Elementary” star Sheryl Lee Ralph. 

Bernie and Wanda decide to send the kids to a private school, which brings Father Sean Cronin into their lives. He is the principal of the school, and although he is a man of the cloth, he doesn’t always behave as one — and the fact that he isn’t especially nice to the students isn’t even the half of it. That being said, he and Bernie do sometimes see eye to eye, especially when it comes to Father Cronin putting mischievous Jordan in his place.

Besides “The Bernie Mac Show,” Father Cronin actor Wade Williams’s other signature role was on another 2000s Fox show — “Prison Break,” where he played Brad Bellick. Fans of animation might best know Williams for voicing Harvey Dent/Two-Face in “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns,” one of the best DC animated movies of all time. The actor has also appeared in “Venom,” “The Mick,” “The Blacklist,” and as Fad on Netflix’s live-action “Cowboy Bebop.”

Though the bulk of William’s television work in the 2010s was one- or two-episode stints on various shows, he was a main cast member on the 2016 PBS medical drama “Mercy Street” for two seasons.

The youngest member of the McCullough/Thomkins clan is Bryanna, aka Baby Girl. Bernie doesn’t have nearly as much trouble initially bonding with Bryana as he does the other two, since she’s still young and sweet and doesn’t immediately rebel or give him trouble. In fact, Bernie’s biggest fear is that Bryana will grow into Nessa 2.0. But Bryana’s brother Jordan has a different view of her, as she tends to bully her meek older brother.

Playing Bryana on “The Bernie Mac Show” has been the only major role for Dee Dee Davis. She has only three other screen acting credits to her name, two of which were one-off TV shows around the same time she was playing Bryana. However, she did return to acting after a long hiatus to appear in a 2020 episode of the internet series “Black Famous.” 

Though she rarely acts, Davis has remained a public figure as a social media personality and model. Most recently, she appeared on a 2024 episode of the Fox lip sync competition show “I Can See Your Voice,” where she was disguised as “The Camper.”

Bernie Mac decided to go the “Seinfeld” route and just have the fictional version of himself on “The Bernie Mac Show” also be a stand-up comedian. As such, an ongoing element of “The Bernie Mac Show” was Bernie’s career, including the booking of shows. Jerry did have a manager on “Seinfeld,” but she was rarely seen and mostly only talked about rather than shown — and even then, it wasn’t very often. Conversely, “The Bernie Mac Show” had Bernie’s manager, named Jerry coincidentally enough, be an prominent recurring character and also one of Bernie’s buddies. He is played by actor Rick Hoffman.

In recent years, Hoffman is best known for playing Louis Litt on the legal drama “Suits.” As far as what happened to Hoffman after “Suits”, he reprised the role of in the “Suits” spin-off “Pearson,” though that only lasted for one season. He played Louis a third time in 2025 in “Suits LA,” but that too only lasted a single season. Hoffman also had a recurring role in the series “Billions,” and starred in the dark comedy slasher film “Thanksgiving.”

The final member of Bernie’s core friend group in “The Bernie Mac Show” is Chuy. At first, Chuy was played by fellow stand-up comedian Carlos Mencia. But that was only for two episodes — after which, for reasons that have never been revealed, Mencia was out and actor Lombardo Boyar took over. Boyar made his debut as Chuy in episode 4 of Season 1 and played the character for the remainder of the series.

Just before starting his time on “The Bernie Mac Show,” Boyar had begun his stint playing his other most noteworthy character — that is to say, voicing him. He played Lars Rodriguez on the Nickelodeon animated series “Rocket Power” between 1999 and 2004, as well as two “Rocket Power” video games released during that time. Following the conclusion of both of those shows, Boyar did a lot of brief stops on a number of other shows before landing in the main cast of the 2014 TNT crime drama “Murder in the First.” 

On the big screen, Boyar has numerous on screen and voice acting credits, including “Gone in 60 Seconds,” “Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” “Happy Feet,” “Next Day Air,” “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” “Bad Santa 2,” and “Coco.”

Actor Naya Rivera will always be best known for playing cheerleader Santana Lopez across all six seasons of “Glee.” But that was hardly her first role on a noteworthy television show, from starring on the Redd Foxx sitcom “The Royal Family” to her stint on “Family Matters,” as well as the character everyone forgets Rivera played in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” And in between those shows and her time on “Glee,” she was also on “The Bernie Mac Show” as Donna, one of Nessa’s friends. 

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to talk about Rivera without addressing her incredibly tragic death. In July 2020, after having been missing for several days, Rivera was found dead in the lake near her home where she had been boating with her young son. An investigation determined that Rivera and her son were swimming and got caught in a rip current, and though she was able to save her son, she ultimately succumbed to the current. Since the incident, swimming is no longer permitted in that lake. 

A voice role as Catwoman in the animated film “Batman: The Long Halloween,” and appearing as herself in an episode of “The Eric Andre Show” — both released posthumously — were Rivera’s final screen credits. 

The nephew on “The Bernie Mac Show” and the last remaining Thomkins child to be discussed is Jordan. Every family sitcom seems to require a nerdy character, and Jordan plays that role here, with his love for science and collecting things. As mentioned, he is also something of a pushover, even succumbing to the bullying of his much younger sister.

Jordan is played by actor Jeremy Suarez, who made his screen debut playing the son of Cuba Gooding Jr.’s character in “Jerry Maguire.” He also had stints on “Chicago Hope” and a short-lived sitcom called “Built to Last” before the start of “The Bernie Mac Show.” Suarez voiced the character Koda in the film “Brother Bear” and its sequel, as well as Wally in “The Proud Family Movie.” The 2000s encompasses the bulk of his acting work, with 2017’s “The Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie” being the most prominent of his mere three screen credits in that decade.

As Suarez explained to Hype+ in 2023, it was his choice to step away from the entertainment industry. “I always transitioned to regular jobs and lifestyle with the purpose of using that as a fact-finding mission. You go out and see the world and you make all of those things part of you,” he told the outlet, while saying that he hasn’t ruled out returning to acting someday. 

One of the most unique elements of “The Bernie Mac Show” are the interstitial portions of the show where the star breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to “America,” as he refers to the audience. It allows Mac to use his formidable talent of commanding an audience as he did so brilliantly with his stand up, but in a different way than Jerry Seinfeld did on his own show with the on-stage comedy bits at the start of early “Seinfeld” episodes. Sure, he is still technically playing Bernie McCullough during those segments, but he is very much Bernie Mac.

Mac’s acting career actually got going around the same time that his stand-up comedy career did. He began the former in the early ’90s, with small roles in “Mo’ Money,” “Who’s the Man?”, “House Party 3” — co-starring alongside future sitcom wife Kellita Smith — and “Friday.” In 2001, just as he was kicking off “The Bernie Mac Show,” Mac also starred in “Ocean’s Eleven” as one of the titular group, a role he reprised for both “Ocean’s Twelve” and “Ocean’s Thirteen.” During that very busy decade, Mac added “Bad Santa,” “Transformers,” “Guess Who,” “Head of State,” “Soul Man,” and more to his film output.

But Mac wouldn’t be around to add any 2010s screen credits to his filmography. In 2008, at only 50 years old, Mac died of complications from pneumonia.