For Maleah Joi Moon, A Different World Doubles as Homecoming

When Maleah Joi Moon stepped into the shoes of Deborah Wayne for Netflix’s A Different World—a sequel series to the ’90s sitcom starring Kadeem Hardison and Jasmine Guy—she felt it was her duty to do the new story justice.

“There’s so much anticipation around this series, which I’m so grateful for and feeling so much wonderful responsibility for just by being a part of the story of this amazing show,” she tells ELLE ahead of the show’s September 24 premiere. “There’s so many people who love the legacy show and felt represented by it, and it’s a big intergenerational piece of culture in the Black community, so I’m super excited, I’m happy, I’m nervous. All of the things.”

Netflix’s version of A Different World takes fans of the legacy series back to Hillman University, the fictional HBCU that served as a backdrop for authentic stories about student life on a primarily Black campus. Hardison and Guy starred on the show as Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert, respectively, and the plot of the original series centered on the trials and tribulations of finding yourself at college. But to fans of the show, A Different World meant so much more than its premise on paper.

Upon its premiere in 1987, A Different World offered groundbreaking, positive representation of Black academic life and gave proof that Black excellence was alive and well. In addition to boosting enrollment numbers at real HBCUs between the late ’80s and early ’90s, the show engaged with serious social issues, like racism, colorism, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, proving that the story offered more than just sitcom plotlines.

The sequel series—which now follows Moon alongside a new set of cast members that also includes Alijah Kai, Cornell Young IV, Jordan Aaron Hall, Kennedi Reece, and Chibuikem Uche—hopes to follow in the original’s footsteps, with several legacy stars on board.

“The legacy cast trusted us with the baton,” Moon says. “It’s one thing for them to say, ‘Okay, we got you,’ but it’s another thing for them to reassure us and say, ‘No, ya’ll got it,’ and ‘We got you,’ which is an incredible feeling knowing how well loved the show is.”

Warning: The below interview contains spoilers for A Different World season 1.

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Did you grow up watching the legacy show, and were your parents fans?

I found A Different World later than some of my other castmates. I watched it in reruns on network television before I think it was even on Netflix. My mom and my dad loved the show. My dad is a huge Black TV and film lover, so he is so elated for me.

My mom is from Belize and came here when she was 17. When I auditioned, she told me that she grew up watching A Different World, and it partly inspired her to finish her collegiate education and get her degree in America because she saw these young Black people in such a wonderful light on television, and it made her want to pursue something bigger, which I think is the reason behind why we’re bringing it back now.

How did you prepare to step into Deborah Wayne’s shoes with this being your first major TV role?

I had to get very familiar with the legacy show and watch it through a different lens. I really analyzed Dwayne and Whitley because my character is the amalgamation of the amazing traits that fans of the original love, and studied the tone of our new show, because it’s not the same sitcom format as the original. There’s now a more intimate focus on these characters, and that required me developing my own study guide to what makes Deborah who she is based on who her parents are, and who they’re not.

The writers’ room, led by the lovely Felicia Pride, also invited the cast to Los Angeles to meet with the team, talk about their ideas, and our own experiences that we think could inform the character, which helped when workshopping Deborah, but there was really no way to prepare for what this moment would be like.

Did you find it intimidating coming into a cast full of veterans?

First of all, yes! You see these giants, who are so well respected for what they do in their community, but I started to understand who they were once I got on set with them. Nothing could have prepared me for how gracious and giving the legacy cast is. I was expecting to tread lightly and to not overstep despite wanting to get close to these people I admire, and the legacy cast surprised me with how willing they were to create this family dynamic with the new generation.

Kadeem took us out to dinner, Cree [Summer] is a super grounded force, and Jasmine is one of the most genuine people I have met. There’s never been a moment where I’ve thought, “I can’t lean on you guys,” where I felt like they weren’t ready to catch me if I stumbled.

I loved the friendship between Deborah and Rashida on the show. How do these very different characters balance each other out?

Deborah is messy, free-spirited, and can be a little shallow, but underneath that is somebody who is finding herself in a more authentic environment than she’s ever been in. Rashida is this confident, young woman who owns herself and her intelligence, and she has this security in herself that Deborah craves in her own life.

Rashida, meanwhile, gets to watch Deborah chaotically fly by the seat of her pants and still somehow makes it work, which inspires her. They’re the antithesis of each other, but in this beautiful sisterhood way where they get to learn from each other’s completely opposite ways of approaching life.

Between Shaquille and Ellington, who would you pick for Deborah?

I don’t think she can pick a guy that’s better for her until she realizes how to be good to herself. In Deborah and Shaquille’s historic friends-to-lovers arc, she can, for better or for worse, rely on Shaquille to be who he’s always been…but has to accept that they’re both changing, which can affect their relationship. Ellington is this new, fresh energy of acceptance in Deborah’s life when every pillar of her community is forcing her to change. Ellington sees her for who she is and has a radical sense of compassion for her, but until she figures out who she is a little bit more, I can’t choose.

If it were me, I probably would pick Shaquille because I am a sucker for context. I think that there’s so much more meat to their relationship as far as them already knowing each other. As someone who doesn’t know what season 2 is gonna look like and what the writers are gonna do, I am very intrigued as to how these people finding themselves could divert away from each other as they discover themselves, or grow really strong with each other.

Why do you think a show like this is important in 2026?

I think now more than ever we need a hopeful reminder that we’re making progress, and that HBCUs can be a wonderful setting for hopeful conversation, activism, and understanding. Beyond the sociopolitical lens of it all and where we’re at as a country, kids at HBCUs should really feel like an HBCU is the safest collegiate environment to be who they are…but that’s not the world that we live in, so we want to create a show where people can see themselves represented positively while also going through the regular trials and tribulations of finding yourself. I really hope that when people watch this show, they feel the nuance and divine alignment of why this show needed to be out now, and feel catharsis like they did with the original show.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.