Dinner with Jackée Harry aka JoAnn

Last night was amazing. OWN Television hosted a media dinner with the legendary Jackée Harry for the new series “Tyler Perry’s: The Paynes” airing on Tuesday nights.

Get ready for one of the most exciting Tyler Perry projects ever, as Cassi Davis and Lavan Davis are back to reprise their roles as Ella and Curtis Payne in Tyler Perry’s new situation comedy titled simply, The Paynes. As the old adage goes, “everything must change,” and sometimes suddenly, and catastrophically. After years of raisingtheir family in Atlanta, Ella and Curtis enter their retirement years. At a time when most couples are slowing down, Curtis decides it’s time to mix things up with a change of scenery. Thus, in Curtis Payne fashion, Curtis puts the wheels in motion for an epic move, but he forgets one important detail consulting his wife. Nevertheless,as the season starts, Curtis and Ella take a trip to the fictitious town of Sun Coast, Florida to attend the funeral of Curtis’ Uncle Robert. Unknown to Ella, this trip will plant them in Sun Coast longer than most people would delight. It is with this modest backdrop that Ella and Curtis begin a new life, in a new community, in a newchurch, and with new unfamiliar family members. As Ella’s nightmare seems to never end she finds she has a new home, a new business, and a new set of people who need her motherly love.

Get ready for a foot-stomping good time as Jackée Harry joins the cast of The Paynes to ensure that the laughs never stop. In true Tyler Perry fashion, The Paynes will do more than offer up laughs. There will be plenty of life lessons thrown into these storylines that are poignant and relevant to issues that real people are coping withall over America. In this lower middle class community, Curtis and Ella become community and church members whose integrity begin to influence everyone around them for the better. With Curtis it is always tough love, and with Ella it is the love that only a nurturer can muster. Once again, Curtis and Ella fight to spread nothingbut joy through every life altering challenge thrown their way. Get ready for a spiritually uplifting good time in The Paynes.

Jackée plays JoAnn, the witty and fun loving character that everyone will love and enjoy. She brings an element of sass and class to her character as only she can.

Taking the time to speak with Jackée last night I was able to understand the development of her character. She explained how what was on paper isn’t exactly what we will see on the screen. You know! She had to add a little bit of twang to that thang. LoL!

She also discussed how she excited to still be on the screen and to be working with Tyler Perry. Jackée provided insight from a career standpoint that spans over 30 years. She made it known that the key to success is remaining humble and remembering that you have to work even harder after you get the job then you did to get the job. Yes Gawd! She was dropping wisdom in the name hunni. Ha!

Make sure you are tuned in to this season of “The Paynes” to see what JoAnn is up to.

Jackée Harry

Vivacious, witty and completely unforgettable, Jackée Harry was born to entertain.

Born Jacqueline Yvonne Harry on August 14, 1956 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and reared from the age of nine in Harlem, New York, by her mother, Flossie, Jackée landed the lead role of the King in her schoolʼs production of The King and I at the tender age of fourteen. Upon graduation from New York Cityʼs High School of Music and Art with a distinction in Opera, Jackée attended the University of Long Island, where she earned her B.A. in education.

Jackée began her career as a history teacher at Brooklyn Technical High School but left after two years to pursue a career in acting. She studied acting at the Henry Street Settlement on the Lower East Side and made her professional acting debut in 1973 in Richard Wesleyʼs Goinʼ Through Changes; not long afterward, she made her Broadway debut in A Broadway Musical as Melinda Bernard.

In 1983, Jackée made her television debut opposite Morgan Freeman in the daytime soap opera Another World. A year later, she landed her iconic role of Sandra Clark on the NBC sitcom 227. As the breakout star of the series, Jackée became the first African American to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and was also nominated for a Golden Globe. Her performance on 227 inspired NBC producers to create a television pilot for her entitled Jackée. After departing from 227 in 1989, she starred opposite Oprah Winfrey in the critically acclaimed adaptation of Gloria Naylorʼs novel The Women of Brewster Place. In 1991, Jackée joined an all-star cast led by Della Reese when she played the role of Ruth ʻCoCoʼ Royal in The Royal Family. From 1994-1999, she starred as the adoptive mother of Tia and Tamara Mowryʼs characters on the ABC/WB sitcom Sister, Sister, winning the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for two consecutive years in 1999 and 2000.Jackée also made guest appearances on Amen, Designing Women, Daveʼs World, Hollywood Squares, 7th Heaven, and Thatʼs So Raven, before joining the cast of Everybody Hates Chris in 2006. Hollywood success did not lead Jackée to turn her back on theater; in 1994 she returned to the stage as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emersonʼs Bar and Grill, and in 2003 she played the role of the Madam in The Boys From Syracuse on Broadway. More recently, Jackée performed before sold-out audiences across the nation in the stage play The Cleanup Woman, which is called “one of the highest grossing gospel stage plays of all time”.

Beyond acting, Jackée is a vocal champion of healthy living, education and philanthropy. She is proud to be a spokesperson for the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund and a Global Ambassador to the Womenʼs International Center. The National Congress of Black Women presented her with the “Woman of Substance” Award in 2010.Jackée currently stars on The First Family and recently did a guest spot on the hit CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls.  She also recurs on ABC Family’s Baby Daddy and Girl Meets World on The Disney Channel.

Larger than life and twice as funny, Jackée continues to entertain and inspire in a way that permanently cements her place in the American cultural landscape.

Source: OWN