KARYN
PARSONS
Karyn Parsons is best known for her role as Will Smith’s spoiled and quippy cousin Hilary Banks on NBC’s The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
After Fresh Prince, Karyn went on to found Sweet Blackberry, an award-winning series of children’s animated films and books sharing stories of unsung black heroes in history, featuring narration from stars such as Alfre Woodard, Queen Latifah, Chris Rock, and Laurence Fishburne. The films have screened on HBO and Netflix and are enjoyed by schools and libraries across the country. Karyn’s debut novel, How High The Moon, hit bookshelves in March 2019. Karyn has also authored the picture books Flying Free: How Bessie Coleman’s Dreams Took Flight for Sweet Blackberry (Dec 2020) and Sweet Blackberry’s Saving The Day that tells the story of how Garrett Morgan invented the traffic signal (to be released in 2021).
01.
EXPLORE
THE
ACTOR
She is best known for her role as Hilary Banks on the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from 1990 to 1996. Parsons also starred in the 1995 film Major Payne opposite Damon Wayans, and in The Job as Toni.
Read
THE
WRITER
02.
Parsons has published two books for children: a middle-grade novel, How High the Moon (2019), which was loosely inspired by stories of her mother's childhood in the Jim Crow South and Flying Free (2020), a picture-book biography of Bessie Coleman illustrated by R. Gregory Christie.
03.
Sweet Blackberry
Launched in 2005 to critical acclaim, Sweet Blackberry is a content company that believes Black history is everyone’s history. Through this lens, we tell stories that inspire, educate, and entertain. Our mission is to bring little-known stories of Black achievement to children everywhere, celebrating these unsung heroes and illustrating for children that obstacles can be opportunities for greatness.
