Lisa Bonet
Lilakoi Moon[1] (born Lisa Michelle Bonet; November 16, 1967), known professionally as Lisa Bonet[2][3][4] (/boʊˈneɪ/), is an American actress. She portrayed Denise Huxtable[5] on the sitcom The Cosby Show (1984–1992), for which she earned widespread acclaim and a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1986; she reprised the role of Denise in the first season of the spinoff series A Different World.
Lisa Bonet
November 16, 1967
Lilakoi Moon[1]
Actress
1983–present
3, including Zoë Kravitz
Kadhja Bonet (half-sister)
She also appeared in the psychological horror film Angel Heart (1987), which earned her a nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. Bonet has starred in the action thriller film Enemy of the State (1998), the comedy-drama film High Fidelity (2000), the action drama film Biker Boyz (2003) and the thriller film Road to Paloma (2013). She has sporadically worked in TV acting, appearing in roles such as Maya Daniels in Life on Mars (2008–2009) and Marisol on Ray Donovan (2016).
From 1987 to 1993, Bonet was married to singer-songwriter Lenny Kravitz, with whom she had one child, Zoë, who is also an actress. In 2017, she married actor Jason Momoa, with whom she has two children. Bonet and Momoa separated in January 2022. Bonet reportedly filed for divorce on January 5, 2024.[6]
Early life[edit]
Lisa Michelle Bonet was born on November 16, 1967, in San Francisco, California,[7][8] to Arlene Joyce Litman, a white Jewish-American schoolteacher, and Allen Bonet, an opera singer of African-American heritage from Texas.[9][10][11][2][4] She has five half-sisters, including singer Kadhja Bonet, and two half-brothers by her father's marriage to Deborah Church. Bonet's parents separated when Bonet was still a baby. Her mother raised her as a single parent and they moved to the Los Angeles area.[12] Bonet graduated from Birmingham High School, in Van Nuys, California and later studied acting at the Celluloid Actor's Studio in North Hollywood.[13][14]
Career[edit]
After being in beauty competitions and appearing in guest spots on television series as a child, Bonet landed the role of Denise Huxtable on The Cosby Show, the second-oldest child of the parents played by Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad.[15] In 1987, she briefly left The Cosby Show to star in the spin-off series A Different World, which focused on Denise's life at college. That year, Bonet, then 19, played 17-year-old Epiphany Proudfoot in the movie Angel Heart opposite Mickey Rourke.[16] In the film, several seconds of an explicit scene she shared with Rourke (filmed when she was 18) were edited to avoid an X rating.[17] For Angel Heart, Bonet earned a nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. It was followed by a topless centerspread in Interview magazine.[18]
In 1986, Bonet earned a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.[19] After announcing her pregnancy during the run of A Different World, Bonet left the series.[20] She returned to The Cosby Show the following year, but was fired in April 1991 because of "creative differences".[21] After The Cosby Show, Bonet appeared in direct-to-video releases and made-for-television movies. In September 1992, Bonet hosted Why Bother Voting?, an election special focusing on young voters' concerns and apathy. She had supporting roles in the 1998 film Enemy of the State and the 2000 film High Fidelity. In 2003 she played Queenie in Biker Boyz, which reunited her with her A Different World co-star Kadeem Hardison.[22]
Bonet co-starred in the film Whitepaddy in 2005. While she did not have another film role until 2014's Road to Paloma, she did make a number of appearances in episodes of television dramas and comedies, starting in 2008 in the American adaptation of the British television series Life on Mars.[23][24] She had a recurring role in the 2014–15 series The Red Road, starring her partner and future husband Jason Momoa.