TLDR: Dee Dee Davis played the youngest, bossiest member of the family on The Bernie Mac Show, starting when she was just four years old. Decades later, she’s traded the spotlight for motherhood, and made peace with a real childhood feud along the way.
Danielle “Dee Dee” Davis was born April 17, 1996, in Culver City, California, and started acting at five, with an older sister, Ariel, who also worked as a child actress. Davis has said she barely understood what she was walking into when she landed the role of Bryana “Baby Girl” Thomkins. “I was four years old, so there are snippets that I remember,” she said. “I remember being in the audition and being in my pajamas and bunny slippers because my mom wanted to go all out.”
She Genuinely Thought Bernie Mac Was Her Real Uncle
The line between the show and real life blurred early for Davis, four years old and working alongside adults she didn’t fully understand were coworkers rather than family. “When I met everybody, I asked my parents, ‘Is this my aunt? Is this my uncle?'” she recalled. “I called them ‘Uncle Bernie’ and ‘Aunt Wanda’ off set too.” That confusion faded with age, but the affection behind it never really did.
Her Sitcom Sibling Rivalry Started With a Real, Cruel Joke
Davis has said her on-screen bickering with TV brother Jordan, played by Jeremy Suarez, started as something genuinely painful rather than playful.
She recalled asking him where her mother was one day on set, and getting a cruel answer back. “He was like, ‘Your mom went back to Chicago and she’s never coming back because she hates you,'” Davis said. She was four. The comment stuck, and a real years-long rivalry grew out of it, complete with their families clashing and their dressing rooms getting moved farther apart.
The two eventually turned that same energy into something they looked forward to rather than dreaded.
“We’d be like, ‘Yes, we got a fighting scene!'” she laughed, describing how filming their characters’ scripted fights became a genuine thrill between takes. Asked about their relationship now, she didn’t hesitate. “Jay is like my brother for real.”
She Didn’t Chase a Long-Term Acting Career, and Never Pretended Otherwise
Davis picked up smaller roles on ER and Strong Medicine in the years after The Bernie Mac Show ended, but she never chased acting the way costars Camille Winbush and Suarez did.
She’s stayed visible in a different way, active on Instagram with over 250,000 followers, where her posts run mostly toward the gym, vacations, and her kids.
Baby Girl Actually Has a Baby Girl Now
Davis is a mother of two, including a daughter, Leia, a real bit of symmetry with the nickname that first made her famous. Her online presence centers on that life rather than her old sitcom fame, even as fans keep bringing the two together.
She Made the Same Career Move as Her On-Screen Sister, With the Same Steady Response
In 2023, Davis joined OnlyFans, writing simply on social media, “I’m a Big girl now.” The announcement drew the same kind of reflexive backlash Winbush had already faced two years earlier, largely from people struggling to square an adult woman’s choices with a childhood role.
Davis has addressed the reaction directly rather than let it sit unanswered, standing by the decision on her own terms.
You can read the fuller story of that same career pivot and the reasoning behind it, in Winbush’s own words, over on her page, along with the rest of the cast in our full guide to The Bernie Mac Show.
Dee Dee Davis, Frequently Asked Questions
What has Dee Dee Davis done since The Bernie Mac Show?
She picked up smaller roles on ER and Strong Medicine, but largely stepped back from a long-term acting career, staying visible instead on social media, where she’s now a mother of two.
Did Dee Dee Davis really feud with Jeremy Suarez?
Yes, she’s said their real-life tension began with a hurtful joke he made about her mother when she was four years old, leading to a real, years-long rivalry that included their families clashing. The two have since reconciled and consider each other family.
Does Dee Dee Davis have kids?
Yes, she is a mother of two, including a daughter named Leia, and shares family and lifestyle content on Instagram.
Did Dee Dee Davis join OnlyFans?
Yes, she joined in 2023, following costar Camille Winbush, who’d joined the platform two years earlier.
