Renee Harrison had no agent and no manager when the audition that would put her on the campus of Hillman College came her way.
Six months after her representatives dropped her, the actress sent a direct message to a casting assistant she had met years earlier at a birthday party. That message led to the role of Candace in Netflix’s “A Different World,” which returns viewers to Hillman nearly 40 years after the original series premiered. Netflix has renewed the show for a second season.
Harrison works alongside original series stars Debbie Allen, Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison and Jenifer Lewis, and the show filmed on the campuses of historically Black colleges and universities in Atlanta. Her earlier credits include playing Aqueelah on “All American: Homecoming” and a role in “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat.”
She looked back on the whirlwind on “The Wayne Ayers Podcast,” which opens with the show’s signature greeting: “Time to wake your a** up for a blessed day.”
Harrison said life has been great lately, “with the exception of the severely sore throat that I woke up with yesterday.”
“Lots to celebrate, I think,” she said.
How she landed the part, she said, is “a little bit of a crazy story.”
Harrison met Loretta Troutman, a casting assistant in Kim Coleman’s office, in 2022 at a mutual friend’s birthday party, where the two connected over a game of Mafia. In 2025, another friend, Christian Johnson, sent Harrison a screenshot of the casting breakdown for the show and told her she should audition.
“By this point, I didn’t have any reps,” Harrison said. “I’m looking at the breakdown. It was a screenshot, and I saw Loretta’s name in the top right corner. And I sent her a DM that was like, ‘Hey, I am unrepresented theatrically, but if you haven’t found your Candace yet, I would really love to audition for her.'”
“And then I auditioned for her,” she said. “And then, you know, we shot the pilot, then we came back and shot the season.”
The offer arrived while she was visiting a close friend in New York.
“I was in Brooklyn in one of my best friend’s house. I was visiting her, just wrapping up on another short film, and I opened up my email and the offer was there,” she said.
When Ayers joked that nobody needs agents these days, Harrison pushed back.
“No, I mean, we definitely need agents,” she said, laughing. “We definitely need managers. We need everyone. All right. We need our entertainment attorneys. We need everyone.”
She also cautioned others against treating her story as a blueprint.
“Use your discernment. I was very fortunate in the circumstance that I was in to be able to do that,” Harrison said. “There’s also a personal relationship there. So I wouldn’t recommend anybody just go DMing anybody that might not fare well for you. But in this case, it did fare well for me, and I’m just so grateful for the entire thing.”
Her mother was the first to hear the news, both after the pilot and again when Harrison was pinned, an industry term for being placed on hold for a role.
“I called my mom on FaceTime and I was like, ‘Oh my God, you’ll never believe it,'” Harrison said. “When I got the formal offer, I was with my best friend Britney Winbush at her apartment in Brooklyn.”
Her first day on set, she said, felt like a homecoming.
“It was amazing. There’s just so many beautiful and talented people that are a part of this incredible story that we get to tell,” Harrison said. “It was like a little bit of a family reunion, slash also getting to meet new people, but everyone was incredibly kind and welcoming. We were all just really happy to be there.”
‘I have to defend my girl’
Much of the online chatter about Candace centers on her entanglement with Shaquille and Deborah. Harrison said she doesn’t see her character as part of a love triangle.
“I don’t consider it to be a love triangle at all,” she said. “The Shaquille and Deborah of it all and Ellington of it all is a love triangle. Candace doesn’t really participate in the love triangle.”
Asked about viewers who don’t like how Candace handled the situation, Harrison chalked it up to college life.
“Listen, I think that it’s college. Sometimes things happen. People are, you know, allowed to be messy,” she said. “Even the character that is extremely well put together, she’s allowed to be a little bit messy, too. But then, you know, it kind of begs the question of whether or not she actually knew about what their dynamic was.”
The reception, she said, has been great.
“Most of the comments that I see, which crack me up, are people being like, ‘Oh my gosh, I hate Candace, but I love you,'” Harrison said, laughing. “That’s all I could ask for.”
She still finds herself sticking up for the character.
“I’ve definitely did some light defending, you know, online and offline, because my friends will call me and be like, ‘Why would Candace do that?'” she said. “And I’m like, guys, have we thought about more than just what we’re seeing, you know? Have we thought about a little bit more of what that story could look like, what it could be, what their dynamics could be? But yeah, I have to defend my girl. I have to.”
Asked whether Candace could develop genuine feelings for Shaquille down the line, Harrison deferred to the show’s writers.
“I’ve got no idea,” she said. “That’s up to our writers, our lovely writers.”
Ayers pointed to showrunner Felicia Pride, who has said, “I think it’s important for Black people to be able to be messy,” and asked Harrison how she keeps Candace from becoming a cardboard villain.
“It’s funny. I don’t think that Candace is a villain. And it’s actually something that I wrote on Twitter the other day,” Harrison said. “All of the Shaquille drama aside, Candace really does love her Gilbert girls and she wants to see the very best of them, with an asterisk, and that asterisk is saying that it’s to her standard. She wants everyone to be like her because as far as Candace is concerned, she is the quintessential Hillman woman.”
“I just, you know, take care of her and her moments, and I make sure as an actor that I’m very clear on why she is doing a thing,” she said.
She pointed to the start of Episode 7, the talent show episode, when Candace warns the other students, “Don’t play with me and don’t play yourselves.”
“Why is she doing that? Why does she say it that way?” Harrison said. “For me, what I was able to come up with was that this is the most prestigious HBCU in the United States. We can’t be anything short of absolute perfection. So that’s where some of that comes from.”
Asked whether she is rooting for Shaquille or Ellington when it comes to Deborah, Harrison kept her own vote private.
“I plead the Fifth. I plead the Fifth,” she said. “I will say that Candace is Team Ellington all the way. Renee will remain neutral on that for now.”
Snatched looks and room to play
Fans have also taken note of Candace’s wardrobe, which Harrison credited to the show’s costume team.
“She had me looking right. OK? She had me looking right,” Harrison said of costume designer Provy. “I think at most, going into our fittings, I just told her that I wanted to be snatched, and we accommodated the wardrobe to that.”
“All of Candace’s visual identity as it relates to her wardrobe, those are things that Provy and Tawnie and the entire costume team really helped to create and shape out,” she said. “All of what I saw, I loved. I was like, ‘This feels like Candace all the way.'”
Her favorites include a burgundy dress with a belt that she wore in the Pit during Episode 3, the bomb threat episode, and a pink two piece from Episode 7, “Hillman’s Got Talent.”
“We didn’t get a chance to really see it,” she said of the burgundy dress.
As for whether she kept any of the pieces: “I honestly loved all of her outfits. I tried to get all of them.”
Harrison said she didn’t pitch any ideas for her character, but the set welcomed improvisation.
“We just had a lot of fun. Like, we had a lot of fun. Our set was so welcoming of improv, and so we got a chance to play,” she said. “We probably have like five or six different takes of the touchdown moment at the end of Episode 6. We were just, ‘Hey, let’s try it this way. Let’s try it that way.'”
Episode 7 is one of her favorites, and Candace’s order at the top of that episode for everyone to get back to their seats was her own addition.
“That was improv, right? To bring us into the moment and also kind of shape out who she is as a character and how she’s being a little bit more militant in this moment,” Harrison said.
She said there were no Easter eggs tied to Candace this season but steered viewers toward a quieter moment.
“I love people’s reception to the scene where Deborah comes to Candace and we’re on the couch and she’s asking about what would you do,” she said. “I think that’s probably one of my favorite scenes from Candace, and I really encourage people to look at that to even get a little bit more of who Candace is outside of the drama of the Shaquille of it all.”
As for whether Candace should get a love interest in the second season, Harrison is open either way.
“I think it could be interesting to see her in that way. But then I also kind of think that the way that Candace operates in the world of ‘A Different World’ is really unique,” she said. “So either one, I’m open to it all.”
Fans hoping Candace and Ellington become more than friends shouldn’t hold their breath.
“They need to hang it up. They need to hang it up, guys,” Harrison said, laughing. “Ellington is bestie. Ellington and Candace are really good friends, and that’s about it.”
When Ayers suggested that friends make the best partners, she shrugged it off.
“Sure. Potato, potato, whatever you want to say.”
Learning from the legends
Harrison said she has always seen herself in Whitley Gilbert, the character Guy played in the original series.
“I’m always going to say that I saw myself in Whitley. I love Whitley. Love Whitley. Love Miss Jasmine Guy,” she said.
Her favorite episodes of the original include a pair from one of the later seasons in which Whitley and a boyfriend head to a cabin, nearly get robbed and get snowed in, as well as a Black History Month episode built around a stage performance.
“That’s also a really memorable one for me,” she said of the latter.
The original cast members, she said, were generous with their time.
“We all got a chance to talk. They were so kind and welcoming. This is really one big happy family,” Harrison said. “We got to talk about their time on the show, but then to also talk about what this moment is for all of us. It was great. The synergy between everyone is just so great and so amazing.”
She recalled passing the time on set playing a game with Daryl Cornell.
“I don’t even know the name of the game,” she said. “It’s a really enriching environment that we got to be in with them for sure.”
She kept her family in the loop, too.
“Oh no, I’m obsessed. Don’t worry. I’ve definitely sent my fair share of selfies to my family group chat, like, ‘Hey guys, look where I am today,'” she said, laughing.
The most valuable thing the original cast gave her, she said, was encouragement.
“What I received more than anything from everyone, from all of our OGs, our legacy cast, was affirmation,” Harrison said. “They were constantly affirming us, telling us that we were doing a good job. And that really meant a lot, you know. It really meant a lot for them to affirm the work that we were doing.”
If Candace had crossed paths with a young Whitley, Harrison predicted sparks.
“I think they’d have a love/hate relationship,” she said. “One of them would always want to be right. They’d always want to be right.”
For the second season, she hopes to finally share a scene with Guy.
“I would love to have a scene with Miss Jasmine Guy,” she said.
Harrison met Guy about a year earlier at a screening for one of Guy’s projects and took a photo with her, which she rediscovered while scrolling through her phone.
“Little did I know that a couple months later, if not a year later, we’d be getting to work together,” she said. “It was so serendipitous.”
One regret: She missed the day Joe Morton filmed.
“I’m so sad. I missed his day on set,” Harrison said. “I was like, I need to come see Papa Pope,” a nod to Morton’s role on “Scandal.”
She called working under Allen, who directed the pilot, a gift.
“Being under her direction has been one of the most artistically nourishing experiences that I’ve had,” Harrison said. “When people do ask me, I like to tell them that she really pulls you forward. She welcomes a space where you can try new things. She welcomes our creativity as young artists, and that has been really such a gift. Really such a gift. I’m so grateful.”
‘Go to an HBCU’
Harrison attended The New School, not an HBCU. But she said many of the women she leans on most did.
“Education is one of the most important things that you can have in this world. And of course, to be able to learn at a historically Black college or university is such an experience,” she said. “When I think about all of the women in my world who are close advisers, who are collaborators, they’ve all went to Spelman, Howard, Hampton, you know, and the way that they operate in the world is so inspiring.”
“When I think about students who are thinking about where to go to school, I would say go to an HBCU,” she said. “Most of the most brilliant women I know all gained their education from HBCUs.”
Her sister went to Howard, which made the question of where Harrison would have enrolled a delicate one.
“Sorry, sister. I don’t want to disappoint you,” she joked. “I think it would either be Howard or Spelman.”
She pointed to two friends: Cesley Deion Davis, a Howard graduate who works with her at Black Girls Do Theater and was, Harrison said, the 84th Miss Howard, and Corana Osborne, a Spelman graduate who she said is “taking over the world of tech.”
“So it would have to be one of those two for sure,” she said.
Harrison founded Black Girls Do Theater about 10 years ago and said she hasn’t fully processed how far it has come.
“I don’t even think that I’ve had a chance yet to fully process it. I think if I do have a moment to, I’ll probably end up sobbing,” she said. “Ten years ago, this idea came to me, and now 10 years later it has grown into this beautiful platform, but also this really beautiful opportunity for Black girls and women to get connected to the theater and get connected with other artists. I can’t even take the time to process it because I want to cry, and I don’t want to cry today.”
“I’m happy that I’ve been able to take good care of it,” she added.
In college, Harrison was one of three students of color in a production of Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale.”
“It was myself and two Latinx students,” she said. “At the time we were all just baby artists trying to figure it out and wanting mentorship, and you know, that’s also part of why you went to college.”
She played Camillo and delivered a monologue at the top of the play.
“If I could think about the young Renee who was doing that play, who was playing Camillo, I think she’d be really proud of me,” Harrison said. “I think she’d be really proud of me that I stuck it through.”
Marvel, Viola Davis and ‘The Hunger Games’
Asked which superhero she would play if Marvel or DC called tomorrow, Harrison picked a studio, not a character.
“I don’t know what character, but I would just want to be in the world of Marvel in some way, shape or form,” she said.
Her dream biopic subject is Viola Davis.
“With some more years of training and sharpening my craft, I’d love to do Viola Davis,” Harrison said.
She said Davis’ memoir, “Finding Me,” had a profound effect on her.
“I read her book and it completely changed my life. I read that book in 24 hours, and usually it would have taken me three to four days,” she said. “What a magnificent woman she is.”
Besides Davis, Harrison named Nicole Beharie, Meryl Streep and Saoirse Ronan among her favorite actresses. She called Beharie “one of the most brilliant artists that I’ve had an opportunity to witness” and praised a recent performance.
“Captivating performance. My gosh,” she said. “There are a number of others too, but those are who I can think of immediately.”
At the top of her list of directors is Ryan Coogler.
“Obviously, Ryan Coogler is high up there,” she said. “More than just the image of Ryan Coogler and who he is posited as in culture, when you hear him talk about the craft, when you hear him talk about the work, he’s an expert. He’s a master of his craft. That’s someone that I would want to be under the direction of for sure. I think I would learn a lot.”
When Ayers noted Coogler’s long partnership with Michael B. Jordan, which dates to “Fruitvale Station,” Harrison agreed.
“What a journey,” she said. “It would be really nice to see more of those creative duos.”
She could see herself directing and starring in her own film someday.
“I would definitely do it. I’m a little Type A,” she said. “Granted, I’m conditionally Type A. Candace is Type A at her core always. If I write something, I need to make sure that it turns out exactly the way that I see it in my brain. And that’s all I’ll say on that.”
She has also been nudging the writers in her circle.
“I have some writer friends too that I’m like, ‘Hey guys, write for me,'” she said. “It’s all in conversation.”
If she could join any franchise right now, Harrison would choose “The Hunger Games,” preferably as one of the villains from the Capitol.
“I’d probably want to be one of the villains,” she said. “Let me give you my reasoning why, though. Their costumes are just so elaborate.”
She admitted the costumes are the main draw.
“I would have to do it for the costumes. Or they could create a story arc where maybe I go from being at the Capitol to being one of the other folks who are out in the world,” Harrison said. “I would love that, but I would really want to be in one of those costumes.”
“Whatever I need to do, they can put me in something just ornate and regal. I would love that,” she said. “Costuming in general really lends to character. It lends to really strong character choices. And yeah, make me the villain.”
A directing debut and a busy festival run
Harrison recently directed her first short film, “Breakfast,” written by her friend Kimber Monroe, whom she knows from The New School.
“She came to me last summer and was like, ‘Hey, I wrote this thing. Do you want to direct it?'” Harrison said. “I had been thinking about directing and wanting to really flex that muscle, and so I said yes.”
The film was shot in June and is in post-production, with plans for the festival circuit.
“Directing is hard work. It is hard work,” she said. “You can’t miss any steps in directing. There’s no finesse. You have to be incredibly granular about everything.”
Outside the show, Harrison said she is auditioning while three short films she made in 2025 make their way into the world.
“Seek No Favor,” written by L. Clay and directed by Clay and Leela Rob, was just accepted into a French film festival. “Tangle Wood,” which she shot in January 2025, was accepted into a festival in Cape Town, South Africa. A third short, which she filmed just before the pilot and which stars Harrison and her friend Malachi Beasley, is still on the festival circuit.
“I’m excited to see all the projects that I worked on last year really begin to spread out into the world,” she said. “The idea of our film being screened in Cape Town is the coolest thing ever. Like, what? What?”
The first season of “A Different World” is streaming on Netflix.
