When Jabari Banks first learned of auditions taking place for the lead role in Bel-Air, a dark reimagining of his favourite 90s sitcom, he heard his destiny calling. “I was like, ‘Oh, I’m perfect for this!’ I knew at that moment: this has got to be me.”
At the time, Banks was just 23 and still a musical theatre student who had never starred in anything, but what he lacked in work experience he made up for in relevant life experience. Banks is a talented rapper who knows his way around the basketball court and, like the song says, he’s “West Philadelphia born and raised”. In other words, he has a lot in common with the original Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will Smith, who was a 21-year-old rapper in 1990 when his own life got, in the words of the show’s theme tune, flipped-turned upside down.
