Actress LisaRaye enjoys career success & her new home

Jet, Feb 23, 2004

As the sassy Neesee on the hit "All of Us," actress LisaRaye is a huge audience favorite. She's also very busy with endorsements, business deals and enjoying a brand new home.

In the hit UPN series "All of Us," LisaRaye (her whole name is LisaRaye McCoy) is the superfashionable and extremely sassy ex-wife of Duane Martin's character Robert James. The show is a comedy about blended families. It also features Elise Neal, Tony Rock and Khamani Griffin. It is produced by Will Smith and wife Jada Pinkett Smith and loosely based on their lives.

Martin is engaged to Neal's character. McCoy plays the ex who brings her son back and forth to see his father. The comedy comes from all the interactions. Neesee is the drama queen who initiates the comedic confrontations.

She told JET that the show is successful because the writing is "just right. And I'm a single parent myself (with a 14-year-old daughter). I'm living the life of having a child with me without the father. And we are tackling issues that a single-parent home and a younger-generation home has to deal with. It's not easy. Right now, we're showing the lighter side of how to deal with situations like babies having babies with a twist of comedic timing. I like the idea of a blended family because there are so many blended families in the country now."

LisaRaye thinks Neesee hits home because there are a lot of Black women like her. "She loves to get her hair done every two weeks, loves to get her nails done every single week," she said. "She can cook and she can clean. Sometimes people look at that kind of woman and assume she doesn't do much just because she's so stylish." And she said there are a lot of Black women who work very hard and maintain their attractive appearance.

In addition to her responsibilities on that show, she also has become the first Black female spokeswoman for Hennessy. And she goes on tour with that responsibility promoting the company's products. She also is launching a line of cosmetics as well as starting teen pageants around the country to help instill a strong sense of self for Black teenage girls.

"I want to give away college scholarships to encourage and empower Black girls," she explained.

LisaRaye, a Chicago native, appeared on the television shows "The Parent 'Hood" and "In the House." But she quickly admits that her biggest screen break came in 1998 in the hit film The Players Club. In that film, she portrayed Diamond, the single mother and student who worked as a stripper at night.

Her hectic work and travel schedule keeps her busy all the time. Luckily, she said "All of Us" now allows her more stability than she's had in a long time. "I'm so grateful to have this job," she said. "I needed this for stability. My daughter is 14. I need to be here in L.A. where I can come home every day, cook dinner, see about homework and keep a finger on her because she is at that age."

And now that professionally things have taken off, she has been able to move into a large, comfortable home.

"I'm doing better for myself and I always wanted one of those 'Dallas'-type homes (from the hit 1980s TV series) where one part of the family is on one side and the other is on the other wing and nobody's bothering anybody. I have a five-bedroom, six-bath house. This past Christmas, I sent for my twin cousins, my aunt and my uncle. My girlfriends were there. I had 13 people staying with me. I had all the beds, all the air mattresses, couches and pallets. But, it was a comfortable feel."

She said the house impressed her because it is so understated on the outside.

"It's incognito on the outside," she laughed. "When I opened the door, I opened up to a winding staircase, something I've always wanted, the kind of staircase that you come down on your prom night. I also wanted a gourmet kitchen and I have that. I wanted a backyard with a pool and I have that. I have a nice-sized living room. I wanted a huge master bedroom with tons of closet space. I have two walk-in closets. It's not overwhelmingly big. It's not the kind of house that when my daughter gets ready to go away to college, I'll be afraid to stay in alone."

And speaking of her own home situation, she quickly pointed out that a major difference between her and Neesee is that she does not care for the father of her daughter at all.

"We're not really friends and it's because I know what he could have been doing, should have been doing. He does what he wants to do. And that, to me, doesn't say 'man' or 'respect.'"

Geography also does not help the situation. He is in Chicago and she and her daughter are in Los Angeles.

"I don't want to have to make him do anything. I want him to do things because it's his responsibility and he wants to be able to have input in her life."

Those domestic problems haven't deterred her from moving forward to make sure she remains financially independent and provides for her daughter. "I started out in this business late, so I don't have that much time to get college-fund money together, annuities, CDs. Two or three years ago, I was able to start that. I really want my daughter to see that I have the tenacity to enable her to cope in the world on her own."