Marina Brett midday host of “Rejoice Musical Soul Food” had the opportunity to talk with former "Fresh Prince of BelAir" star Karyn Parsons, best known for her role as Will Smith's cousin, Hillary Banks on the 1990’s show. Karyn is starring in a new role, and she is changing the world one child at a time with her non profit "Sweet Blackberry" educating our youth about little known African Americans who've made a difference. Black History is American History. Join Karyn Parsons, star of the 1990's hit sitcom "Fresh Prince of Bel Air," for inspiring Black History facts about little known African Americans who've made significant contributions. Like Henry Box Brown, the slave that literally mailed himself to freedom. Tune in every Monday at 12:50/1:35p est, streaming live at musicalsoulfood.com and broadcasting live on over 40 radio stations around the country. Hilary Violet Banks (played by Karyn Parsons), born August 18, 1969, is Will's attractive, but dull-witted, eldest cousin, known for her notable lack of intelligence, her pretentious attitude, for being spoiled, and her dependence on Geoffrey. In earlier seasons, Hilary's snobbishness is emphasized, as well as her shallow trendy environmental activism. During this time, she often claimed to hobnob with celebrities and loved being mistaken by people for Whitney Houston. Later on, Hilary is written as a self-centered airhead; she looks down on Will's upbringing and is obsessed with shopping and money (this is shown early in the series; her first line of the show is "Dad, I need $300!" which she intended to spend on a hat). However, despite her apparent shallow personality, she has a strong sense of integrity and shows obvious affection to her family members; Will gets along with her better than with Carlton does, though Will is at times bewildered by Hilary's lapses of intelligence. Hilary is portrayed as a stereotypical valley girl and speaks with some strong valspeak habits, in spite of her disdain for the San Fernando Valley (as evidenced in two season three episodes: in "Asses to Ashes", when talking about what heaven and hell might be like, she describes hell to be "like, the Valley"; in "Robbing the Banks", when Will lets it slip to Hilary, Carlton and Ashley that Luther, whom Philip was coaxed into hiring to help around the house while Vivian and Geoffrey were each on vacation, spent time "in the pen", Hilary responds "The pen, please tell me that's slang for the Valley"). During the series, Hilary attends and drops out of UCLA, after which she begins a long streak of varying luck that eventually lands her a nationally-syndicated daytime talk show titled Hilary. It starts when she becomes a weather reporter at a local television station, where she meets and falls in love with the station's lead news anchor Trevor Collins (Brian Stokes Mitchell). However, Trevor dies in a bungee jumping accident while proposing marriage in the episode "Where There's a Will, There's a Way", part of an ill-conceived live televised event that Hilary and the rest of the Banks family watch at home on the living room television. At the conclusion of the series, Hilary's talk show moves to New York City, as does most of the rest of the Banks family. Hilary's hair styles have changed as the series progressed; early in the series it was brown and bushy, it then became longer and curly with blonde highlights, but later it was black, straight, and shoulder-length.

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