Guys With Kids

Season 1 SABC3 (*193) 19:30 Comedy

Before he played dad Dre on Black-ish (2014- current), Anthony Anderson had another fatherly role as Gary on singleseason sitcom Guys With Kids (20122013). “It was fun. I got to work with a lot of fun adults but the kids were the real stars. They made coming to work an absolute joy,” explains Anthony, who didn’t have to research changing nappies – he has two adult children himself, 23-year-old daughter Kyra and 17-year-old son Nathan.

He nearly cast Nathan in Black-ish, which he executive produces. “He simply has too much swag. We needed the character to be nerdy and Nathan was just too cool,” says the 48-year- old. Anthony started his career doing stand-up comedy and it almost stopped him in his tracks. He says that not being funny on stage was a massive blow to his ego. He also almost didn’t make it out of his 20s alive – he has Type 2 diabetes that went undiagnosed until 2001. He lost over 30kg between 2002 and 2014 by getting his condition under control, which Anthony reveals is only due to his father dying from the same disease and opening his eyes. Anthony was investigated in 2004 and 2017 for sexual assaults on the sets of two separate productions but the judges and DAs threw both cases out, citing suspicious testimony. The actor was separated from his wife Alvina in 2015. They patched up their differences and she withdrew her divorce request in January 2017. There is only little issue still: she says they married in 2005, he says 1999. He had his DNA analysed in 2010 to trace his ancestors; they’re from Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.