It is not uncommon for long-running television shows to change their child actors without prior notice, which seems to be what Girlfriends did with Jabari Darnell Wilkes.
The CW’s Girlfriends is the all-Black female lead sitcom that premiered in 2000. At the time, the sitcom did not get the recognition and praise it arguably deserved for its premise and cultural significance.
However, in the years since, it has gained a cult-following and has been available on Netflix since 2020.
One of the central characters in Girlfriends was Maya Denise Wilkes, who was played by Golden Brooks.
She was introduced as a wife and mother when we first met her, and her son, Jabari Darnell Wilkes, was first played by Tanner Scott Richards for six seasons, until he was replaced by Kendré Berry for the last two seasons.
What was Girlfriends about?
With an eight-season run, and a constantly growing fansbase, The CW’s Girlfriends was created by screenwriter and producer Mara Brock Akil, who told a story that took “A look at the lives, loves, and losses of four different women, Toni, Maya, Lynn, and Joan.”
Each central lead character encapsulated the different lived experiences of Black women, told through the lens of actresses Jill Marie Jones, Brooks, Persia White and Tracee Ellis Ross.
Though the cast was somewhat consistent, Jones left the show in 2006, while the rest of the core cast stayed on until the abrupt series finale in 2008. This is as the sitcom did not get to conclude its show due to the Hollywood Writers’ Strike of 2007/8.
Why did Girlfriends change Jabari?
When we meet Maya Wilkes at the beginning of Girlfriends, she is an aspiring authoress, a wife to her high-school sweetheart, Darnell and a mother of one to son, Jabari.
Since Maya was still a relatively new mother, Jabari was still a young boy at the beginning of the series, who was played by Tanner Scott Richards.
Fans liked Richards as Jabari due to his sweet demeanour and childish looks, which took after his onscreen father, Khalil Kain. However, following the end of season six, when season seven began, the show had a new Jabari.
In 2007, Kendré Berry replaced Richards as Jabari. Moreover, the older Jabari was a teenager and was dealing with the ramifications of being a teenage, Black young man.
Therefore, the actor wasn’t the only thing that changed, as his demeanour also reflected something differet. This affected how fans reacted to the new Jabari.
Due to the lack of recognition the sitcom was getting at the time, Richards never got to share why he left the show and Girlfriends never explained it too.
Speculating on Girlfriends’ Jabari change
The change of child actors in a show is not uncommon. More so, if the children are not part of the main cast. Therefore, Tanner Scott Richards most probably did not return to the sitcom after his parents decided to not renew his contract.
This is as his departure coincided with Jill Marie Jones’ exit, after she also decided not to renew her contract after it came to an end in 2006.
Therefore, it is probable that for whatever personal reasons, Richards’ family decided to pull Richards away from the world of entertainment as a whole.
Where is Tanner Scott Richards now?
Tanner Scott Richards was one of the promising stars of the 2000s. When he started acting on Girlfriends in 2000, he was already eight years old, though his first acting job was at two years old in ER.
In 1995, he also featured on Mr. Show, with Bob and David, but Girlfriends was his biggest role as he was a recurring cast member on the sitcom.
His last job was on Monk in 2002, and since then, no word on Richards and his acting aspirations has been revealed.
Where is Kendre Berry now?
Kendré Berry took over the role of Jabari Wilkes for season seven and eight of Girlfriends. Berry’s tenure as Jabari focussed on the realities of raising a Black-teen boy in the 2000s.
Therefore, teen-Jabari represented adolescents of the time. After Girlfriends concluded, Kendré Berry returned to the silver screens in recurring guest features, and he also diversified into an independent R&B singer.
In 2019, he released his most recent single, We Be Sexxn, and in the same year, he featured as a Prophet$ gang member on On My Block.
Conclusion
The CW’s Girlfriends might have been premised on the four main female leads of the sitcom, but fans also developed their own rapport for the other supporting characters of the show.
The only child to have a recurring role on the sitcom was Maya’s son, Jabari, whose character was there from the beginning until the end. Jabari was initially played by Tanner Scott Richards who left the show in 2006.
This is believed to be the time the sitcom was renegotiating contracts for new seasons of the show, and with that, it seems that Richards’ family decided not to renew the contract, and as a result, Kendré Berry replaced him.