Back in the mid-'90s, Mekhi Phifer was one of the biggest stars around.
While he still works a lot, he is not quite in the spotlight as he once was.
Here's why you might not have seen as much of him lately.
Although he married and divorced his High School High co-star Malinda Williams, had
a child with one-time fiancée Oni Souratha and got married a second time to NBC creative
director Reshelet Barnes, Mekhi Phifer has largely managed to keep his eventful private
life out of the press.
"C'mon man, what I'm supposed to do?"
And that's because the Clockers lead has made a conscious effort to avoid playing the media
game and spending time on the social scene.
That said, he does have some showbiz pals, namely Morris Chestnut and Omar Epps.
And he even once had dinner at music producer Quincy Jones' house with none other than Sidney
Poitier.
In an interview with theGrio, Phifer revealed that he's always been keen to adhere to the
advice the Oscar winner gave him:
"He said to me, 'They won't pay to see your movies on Saturday if they see you at the
club on Friday.'"
It's a rule which has steered the actor away not only from controversy but also the spotlight
whenever he's not working.
Mekhi Phifer was in his 20s during his mid-'90s breakthrough, which means he could get away
with playing roles such as teenage drug dealers and high school students.
Nowadays, the established silver screen star plays father figures.
For example, in 2020, Phifer was cast as the dad of Mia, the youngster who has a complicated
relationship with closeted teen Victor, in the Love, Simon spinoff TV series Love, Victor.
"Look, just give it time, OK?
She's a teenager."
Luckily, the actor doesn't appear to have any hang-ups about playing "grown-up" supporting
roles.
In fact, Love, Victor seems to have been one of his most enjoyable experiences.
Referring to the break in filming caused by the worldwide pandemic, Phifer told Distractify:
"I had a great time doing that show, and I'm just praying that my character, the cool dad,
can come back and do it again.
It looks like we will.
There's no way they can do season two without the dad."
Phifer was no doubt referring to the fact that the season one finale saw his character
Harold discover he's about to become a father for a second time.
Although Mekhi Phifer's career is now largely rooted in the world of television, he has
still averaged a film a year since 2016.
But if you're wondering why you haven't seen him on the big screen, well, it's because
each and every one has been a VOD affair.
Firstly, there was the eerily prescient Pandemic, a sci-fi thriller in which Phifer played a
New York medic tasked with finding survivors in Los Angeles.
Then the actor got to show off his muscles in the Magic Mike knockoff Chocolate City:
Vegas Strip.
And then he really stretched himself by showing up as himself in the comedy A Talent for Trouble.
Phifer's cinema-bypassing credits continued with the roles of prosecutor A.J. Canton in
faith-based legal drama Canal Street and murderous farmhand Sonny in thriller Obsession.
It's not clear if we'll have to venture into theaters for any of his next two releases,
Saint Paul and 10-13, or whether we can watch them from the comfort of our own homes.
In 2014, Mekhi Phifer starred as one of Whoopi Goldberg's four children in TV movie A Day
Late and a Dollar Short.
But the actor certainly needed more than a dollar to make up for a financial shortfall
in real life.
In fact, that same year Phifer was forced to declare bankruptcy after racking up debts
of roughly $1.3 million.
TMZ obtained legal documents which reportedly stated that the Paid in Full star owed back
taxes of $1.2 million, $50,000 in legal costs and nearly $5,000 in child support.
So how did a man with several box office smashes and hit TV shows to his name manage to find
himself in such trouble?
Well, according to those same papers, Phifer had a habit of spending nearly $12,000 per
month when his income in the same period was only $7,500, buying things like leather beds
and a, quote, "large collection" of firearms.
In addition to playing fathers on screen, Mekhi Phifer also has dad duties in real life.
The 8 Mile star first became a parent in the late 1990s when first wife Malinda Williams
gave birth to son Omikaye.
Eight years later he became a pop again when he and fiancée Oni Souratha welcomed a second
son, also named Mekhi, into the world.
The New Yorker has largely kept his two kids away from the spotlight, although he has shared
the odd picture on social media.
In 2016, he uploaded an Instagram snap of his younger namesake looking primed for a
career in movie directing, while a year later he captioned another Insta photo of his first-born,
"It's crazy how time flies!!
I remember changing my youngblood's diapers, and now he's off to the prom!"
During a 2008 interview on The Bonnie Hunt Show, Phifer credited his mother with teaching
him how to be a great parent.
He also described fatherhood as a, quote, "privilege" before listing all the things
he enjoys about it, in particular:
"I love kids, outings, camping, sports, Legoland, all the daddy stuff.
I love it.
I wish I could just do that, but I have to work, too."
The CW has recently become renowned for giving shows a second chance, making the unprecedented
move of renewing all 12 of its original series in 2019.
Three years earlier, though, they were a little more ruthless, as Mekhi Phifer found out.
The NAACP Image Award nominee had been cast as Satch Reyna in the network's adaptation
of time-traveling cult classic Frequency, a man who over the course of 20 years goes
from married detective to divorced lieutenant in the NYPD.
In a 2016 chat with Showbiz Junkies, Phifer seemed optimistic about the show's premise,
saying:
"I think it's a creative way to almost have never ending stories.
I think you can go to so many different places with this sort of thing."
Unfortunately, Phifer and his co-stars never got the chance to explore more than 13 stories.
Despite a positive critical response, Frequency struggled to get past the one million viewer-mark
in its first season and was swiftly given the boot on the same day as another sci-fi
thriller, the aptly-titled No Tomorrow.
Although Mekhi Phifer isn't averse to the odd franchise movie and big TV show, he's
always kept one foot in lower-budget indie territory.
Even in the height of his pin-up phase, he was appearing in weighty material, such as
a modern take on Shakespeare's Othello and a made-for-TV movie based on the novel A Lesson
Before Dying.
Avoiding the predictable has been a conscious decision by Phifer.
As he explained in an interview with Scene Creek in 2015:
"I choose characters that are interesting but different.
I love being challenged."
That decision has meant Phifer keeps finding rewarding roles throughout his career, even
if they're not always in the flashiest possible projects.
Like everyone else in Hollywood, Mekhi Phifer was no doubt expecting Divergent to become
the next young adult phenomenon like Twilight and The Hunger Games before it.
When asked about its blockbuster potential by Screen Rant in 2014, he answered:
"I mean you know it's nice because we all feel really good about the film and we feel
really good about our work.
It's nice to know that the masses will see it."
But while the first adaptation of Veronica Roth's dystopian novels did decent business,
it didn't exactly set the box office alight.
The sequel Insurgent did a little better, but by the time the third chapter Allegiant
hit cinemas in 2016, franchise fatigue had well and truly set in and the film took $100
million less than its predecessor.
Studio Lionsgate was so disappointed with the $185 million tally that they announced
the fourth installment would be a TV movie.
But they appeared to have got cold feet altogether and the project has been in limbo ever since.
Of course, the seemingly abandoned Ascendant doesn't really concern Phifer anymore.
Spoiler alert: his character Max, the former leader of the Dauntless faction, was gunned
down in cold blood in Allegiant after being captured and tried for his crimes.
There's another reason why Mekhi Phifer may not seem to be as visible these days.
When he's not working on stuff like Apple TV+ series Truth Be Told, he pursues a number
of interests away from the screen.
No, acting isn't his only talent, that's for sure.
He's a keen poker player, for one thing, having once won a tournament on Celebrity Poker Showdown
Championship.
Phifer has also thrown his hat into the entrepreneurship ring, and once owned half a dozen different
shoe stores in the Los Angeles area.
As People noted, he also founded Third Reel Films, a company designed to give emerging
moviemakers the opportunity to showcase their work where it matters.
What's more, he's worked with The Vine Group USA, a non-profit which aims to provide African
universities with better resources.
And sometimes Phifer's acting career takes him away from film and television.
In 2011, he took to the Broadway stage where he played plastic surgeon Flip in dramedy
Stick Fly.
The star also lent his voice to the 2021 second season of Bronzeville, an audio series set
in a Black neighborhood in 1940s Chicago.
If there's one thing you can bet on, it's that Phifer will stay busy.
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