Lisa Bonet made waves on "The Cosby Show" before establishing herself as a serious actor with a
private personal life. While this enigmatic actor isn't always in the public eye, she's
given hints as to why. Let's travel through the fascinating life and transformation of Lisa Bonet.
Before she became a sitcom star, Lisa Bonet felt out of place in a wealthy, white community in Los
Angeles, California. In a 1987 interview with The Washington Post, she recalled being bullied as a
child for her mixed race background, and having a, quote, "identity crisis" at a young age.
Bonet needed something else in her life, and a friend invited her to an acting class,
which Bonet liked enough to return. She would soon land a guest spot on the medical drama
"St. Elsewhere" in 1983. The actor was 16 years old when the episode aired,
the same age she was when she auditioned for "The Cosby Show."
Bonet's breakthrough role came when she played Denise Huxtable on "The
Cosby Show" from 1984 to 1991, and she began to spend more time in the
spotlight as the series racked up awards and gained popularity.
"What is your problem, child?"
"I think it has something to do with the teachers."
Bonet and her TV siblings were featured on special programs like "Night of 100
Stars II," a 1985 live entertainment marathon that benefitted The Actors' Fund of America.
By 1992, at the end of "The Cosby Show's" run, the show was recognized as one of the most important
shows of its era, both for its depiction of an affluent Black family and its ability to
deliver traditional sitcom fun. The show was also a ratings smash,
earning the top spot in the Nielsen ratings consistently from 1985 to 1989.
Therefore, a lot of people were watching Lisa Bonet as Denise Huxtable week after week.
A few years into the series, she was ready to shoot a feature film and helm her own
spin-off sitcom. But neither venture would be without its struggles, one way or another.
In 1986, Bonet was officially an adult at 18 years old,
but she was still playing a big sister on a family show. Her next project during her years
on "The Cosby Show" would be "Angel Heart," an R-rated Alan Parker film
also starring Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro. A horror film full of violence and sex,
"Angel Heart" was a controversial departure for the young star of a family sitcom,
and even initially earned an X rating until Parker agreed to cut 10 seconds of footage.
Despite the controversy, Bonet defended her decision to star in the film, telling the
Washington Post that it was an effort to prove to naysayers that she could act beyond her TV
performance. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, she noted she wasn't concerned that the film
would affect her reputation. Instead, she, quote, "felt obligated" to her own future as an actress.
Despite her newfound film success, Lisa Bonet wasn't about to abandon television.
She still had more work to do in one of her most iconic roles.
Thanks to the success of "The Cosby Show," Bonet went on to
play Denise Huxtable in its spinoff series, "A Different World." Like its predecessor,
the show would go on to be one of the most important Black sitcoms of all time,
but it would do much of that without Bonet, who left after just one season.
Co-star Darryl M. Bell later told Vanity Fair that Bonet's popularity was the whole reason the
sitcom came about in the first place, but she was ultimately dismissed by creator Bill Cosby
over something very personal. The year the show premiered, Bonet married rock star Lenny Kravitz,
and was soon pregnant with her first child, Zoë. Though producer Debbie
Allen fought for the pregnancy to be included as a storyline on the show,
Cosby declared it was impossible because, quote, "Denise Huxtable is not pregnant."
So, Bonet was written out of "A Different World," and instead went
back to "The Cosby Show" after she gave birth.
Zoë Kravitz was born to Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz in 1988,
but according to Rolling Stone, the younger actor has
no memories of her parents together. For many years, Zoë lived with her mother
in Los Angeles County's Topanga Canyon, somewhat removed from Hollywood among chickens and dogs.
After separating from Lenny Kravitz, Bonet told Arsenio Hall in 1992 that she was, quote, "single
again," focusing on being a parent, and spending less time worrying about work. Amid her changing
lifestyle, Bonet also changed her name. In the early 1990s, she legally altered her name to
Lilakoi Moon. As she told People in 2008, the name change was to, quote, "honor my personal life."
When Zoë was 11, Bonet also endured another big change, as her daughter left home to go
and live with her father. Though she and Kravitz weren't close, Bonet recognized the importance
of her daughter knowing both of her parents, despite the hardship of being separate from Zoë.
Lisa Bonet is an actor, through and through, even though she takes breaks from Hollywood.
She went off the radar for a time in the '90s to focus on parenthood and other interests,
but she couldn't stay away from her craft for long.
Towards the end of the 1990s, Bonet began to make her return to the screen in a variety of projects,
like "Enemy of the State" with Will Smith in 1998 and one of her best-known works,
2000's "High Fidelity." That film, a romantic comedy set in a record store,
was even rebooted as a TV series starring daughter Zoë Kravitz in 2020.
Even as she returned to acting, though, Bonet was focused on balance.
In an interview with ScreenSlam to promote the "High Fidelity" movie,
she said she was focused on a, quote, "big world" that the movie cameras don't see.
Several years after making her big-screen comeback in the entertainment industry,
Lisa Bonet found a new love named Jason Momoa. It's hard to believe now that Momoa was once a
newcomer fresh off of the "Baywatch" franchise, but he was still getting started in Hollywood
when he found Bonet. In fact, the future "Aquaman" star later confessed that he'd
had a crush on his future wife since he'd seen her on television when he was eight years old,
so he'd been looking for her for quite some time.
"Ever since I was like eight years old and I saw her on the TV, I was like
'Mommy, I want that one.'"
The actors met at a Los Angeles jazz club in 2004, when Momoa needed a ride home and Bonet
helped him out. They've been together ever since. While Momoa is over a decade younger than Bonet,
these two are clearly in it for the long haul. Though their nuptials remain shrouded in secrecy,
Us Weekly reported that the couple "officially" wed in 2017.
After appearing in several feature films in the 2000s,
Bonet landed a recurring role on the series "Life on Mars." She told People in 2008,
"To have my face reinstated in minds and homes once a week was an intense decision.
I'm a shy person. I don't know if it's in my DNA to share with the world."
Thankfully, it helped the actor to have the support of her blended family. In the same
People interview, she credited Momoa with giving her the, quote, "safety" she needed to keep going.
In 2007, three years after they met, Bonet and Momoa began a family of their own.
While daughter Zoë Kravitz was already a young adult at the time, Bonet's first child with Momoa,
their daughter Lola, was born in 2007. Their son, Nakoa-Wolf, followed in 2008.
Throughout the next decade, Bonet started another run of major television credits,
including a seven-episode arc on "The Red Road," alongside Momoa, and "Ray Donovan." The actor also
made time to play both Rosa Parks and Mary Ellen Pleasant on the comedy series "Drunk History."
Though she lived in New York while filming "The Cosby Show,"
Bonet seems to be a Californian at her core. Living in Southern California also
keeps Bonet close to her adult daughter. When prompted by Access to talk about Zoë
Kravitz on the 2020 Golden Globes red carpet, Bonet praised her and said,
"I think she's conquering
life in a whole different way, and it's really inspiring, actually."
There's a striking resemblance between the famous mother-daughter duo,
who were even in a Calvin Klein campaign together in 2016.
And Zoë Kravitz will occasionally post photos of the two on Instagram with cute captions calling
her mother, quote, "My pal." It's sweet, but don't think dad Lenny Kravitz is left out.
Lisa Bonet's ex reflected on their marriage during "Oprah's Master Class" in 2018,
"She really helped to bring out the best in me and inspired me."
Kravitz added that he and Bonet are now, quote, "best friends," and said that he's become a
major part of Bonet's family in ways he wasn't before. Kravitz, Bonet, their daughter Zoe, Momoa,
and Momoa and Bonet's children are all part of one large, extended family.
You won't find Lisa Bonet giving interviews or engaging with the media too often these days.
Momoa even mentioned in an interview with Men's Health that their family
home in California doesn't have a television,
which is interesting considering his starring roles on shows like "Game of Thrones" and "See."
Unlike Jason Momoa, Bonet has slowed down on acting in more recent years. While she was
spotted at the very end of Momoa's 2020 Super Bowl commercial, her last major roles as of right now
were in 2017. Of course, it's not uncommon for the screen star to take hiatuses from showbiz,
but it also turns out that it's simply not a requirement for Bonet to work.
Thanks to years in the business, she's got a considerable fortune to fall back on,
and Momoa's not doing too bad either. Lisa Bonet's life has always seemed to be about
the balance between her life and her work, and for now at least, life seems to be taking the lead.
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