One of the most iconic things about Debbie Allen is the sheer number of Black creatives she’s mentored

Jada Pinkett Smith

Jasmine Guy

Taylour Paige

Geffri Maya

Chloé Arnold & Maud Arnold

Corbin Bleu

Camille A. Brown

Jessie Williams

Ahead of the Critics Choice Association’s ninth annual Celebration of Black Cinema & Television, we round up talent she’s nurtured.

On Monday, Nov. 16, the 76-year-old legendary choreographer, producer, actress, and director will receive the Icon Award at the Critics Choice Association’s ninth annual Celebration of Black Cinema & Television in Los Angeles.

After more than five decades in entertainment, the five-time Emmy Award winner has had the kind of career other performers can only dream of. She’s starred on Broadway, choreographed the Academy Awards ten times, worked with legends including Lena Horne, Sammy Davis Jr., Michael Jackson, and Whitney Houston, and helped bring Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad” to the big screen. From her unforgettable role on “Fame” to her work producing and directing “A Different World” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” she has been a cross-generational force in Hollywood. However, one of the most iconic things about her may be the sheer number of other Black entertainers she’s managed to bring into the fold.

Through “Fame” and “A Different World,” Allen famously worked with young performers, many of whom would go on to become some of the most recognizable faces in Black entertainment, while her Debbie Allen Dance Academy, founded in Los Angeles in 2001, has trained generations of aspiring dancers, including several who have since become household names in their own right. As the “A Different World” reboot is bringing even more young talent into the mainstream, and ahead of her latest honor, we’re rounding up some of the biggest names who credit Allen with a hand in their careers.

In 1991, during the height of “A Different World,” a then-19-year-old Jada Pinkett Smith auditioned for a guest role playing a college student living with HIV. While she didn’t land the part, she left Allen so impressed that the producer created an entirely new character, Lena James, specifically for her and brought her on as a series regular, effectively launching her Hollywood career. Pinkett Smith, who grew up watching Allen on “Fame” and admiring her ability to act, sing, dance, and choreograph, has called Allen like a “ guardian angel ” who looks out for her to this day.

While most would assume “A Different World” is where Allen and Jasmine Guy ’s relationship began, it was actually several years earlier, in 1982, when Guy, then 20 and fresh off her Alvin Ailey training, landed a dancing role on “Fame,” which Allen starred in and choreographed. Eventually, after Guy landed the role of the iconic Whitley Gilbert on “A Different World” in 1987, at age 25, the two reunited when Allen joined the series the following year as a producer and director. She also quickly began to encourage Guy to expand her talents behind the camera, leading to her writing and directing during the sitcom’s run.

When Taylour Paige was just 11 years old, Allen took her under her wing after she began studying dance at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in 2001. Under Allen’s guidance, Paige became a regular in her stage productions when Allen invited television producer Stan Rogow to watch Paige perform at around 14 years old. He was so impressed that he became her manager, opening the door to an acting career that would eventually include starring roles in “Zola,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “I Love Boosters,” and more. Paige refers to Allen as her “ Godmother ” to this day.

After Geffri Maya got her start in show business around age 7, playing Young Nala in Broadway’s “The Lion King,” her budding interest in performing was further nurtured by Allen when she joined the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in her hometown of Los Angeles. Since then, Maya has landed roles in “Private Practice,” “Snowfall,” and “All American,” where her portrayal of Simone Hicks earned her a starring role in the HBCU-centered spinoff “All American: Homecoming,” which premiered in 2022 and ran for three seasons.

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The Emmy-nominated tap dancer and choreographer Chloé Arnold, who is currently making history as the first Black woman to choreograph for the Radio City Rockettes, credits Allen with being an invaluable mentor to both her and her younger sister, Maud, since the beginning of their careers. The sisters grew up dancing in Washington, D.C. , where Chloé first crossed paths with Allen in 1998 while auditioning for her production of “Brothers of the Knight” at the Kennedy Center. At 16, she landed a role in the musical, which Maud would later appear in as well, before spending four summers studying at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy. Nearly three decades later, Allen remains so close to the sisters that they’ve even cast her in their upcoming Christmas film “Tapping into Christmas,” premiering on OWN next month.

What would “High School Musical” have been without actor and Broadway star Corbin Bleu, who played Chad Danforth in the hit Disney Channel franchise? Thankfully, we don’t have to imagine it because Bleu was among the first students at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, when it opened its doors in 2000, and spent two years studying everything from ballet to African dance under Allen’s tutelage. He also performed in her stage production of “Brothers of the Knight,” and while he had been acting professionally since early childhood, it was Allen who he credits with teaching him the discipline of an entertainer that has followed him throughout his career. The two have kept in touch as well; in fact, Allen recently sent him a video praising him on how far he’s come .

It should come as no surprise that Allen also had a hand in discovering Camille A. Brown , one of the most influential Black women working in contemporary dance, Broadway, and opera today. Brown, whose credits include choreographing Alicia Keys’ “Hell’s Kitchen” and becoming the first Black woman in 67 years to both direct and choreograph a Broadway production, first caught Allen’s eye in 1991 at the Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center in Queens, New York. At just 11 years old, Brown was one of five young dancers Allen selected to perform a number from the Disney musical “Polly.” More than 30 years later, the two have traded places, for yet another full-circle moment for the mentor, with Brown directing her in a virtual reading of Pearl Cleage’s “Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous,” alongside Allen’s sister, Phylicia Rashad.

Now, Jesse Williams was considerably older than many of the other stars she’s mentored when he first connected with Allen, but their time together on “Grey’s Anatomy” has proven no less meaningful. After watching Allen direct episodes of the hit medical drama, Williams began considering stepping behind the camera himself. She and fellow cast member Chandra Wilson encouraged him to take the leap, and in 2018, he made his directorial debut with the season 14 episode “Fight for Your Mind” and has since directed several more episodes of the medical drama. In a 2025 interview with Shondaland , he credited the two women with giving him the push he needed, saying their guidance “catapulted” him into directing.

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