Broadway star Maleah Joi Moon is already an award-winning performer for her work on Hell’s Kitchen. In 2024, she took home the Tony for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, thanks to her star-making portrayal of Ali in the Alicia Keys production. The queer performer, who uses she/they pronouns, also won a Grammy for the cast recording and was named to the 2024 Out100.
Since her breakout year, the wins have kept coming for Moon. She concluded her history-making Broadway run on March 27, 2025. Shortly after taking her final bow, she graced the cover of Out’s Pride of Broadway issue, where she joined theater icons recognizable by a single name: Lea, Kristin, Idina, Megan, and now, Maleah.
“The Out magazine cover…was an amazing opportunity and still kind of one of my favorite experiences that I’ve ever had, particularly because of where I come from with my theater background. It was so cool to be in a setting like that, being recognized among these women that I’m really inspired by,” Moon shares.
Moon never imagined that the inspiration she drew from those fellow icons would come full circle. Near the end of her Hell’s Kitchen run, the acclaimed actress, choreographer, and director Debbie Allen (Fame, A Different World) was in the audience, setting in motion the next chapter of Moon’s career.
Maleah Joi MoonSam Waxman
“Debbie Allen came to see the show somewhere in my time on Broadway as Ali after the Tony, and she pushed me to some folks when she saw me. Then around the end of March, I got an NDA and a self-tape appointment for an ‘Untitled HBCU Project’ that we now know as the sequel of A Different World.”
When Moon learned she had landed the lead role of Deborah Wayne in Netflix’s A Different World, she was exactly where she had spent much of her career: in a rehearsal studio. The actor was participating in a workshop for a new musical by acclaimed composer and playwright Jake Landau when she received a call from her team with the news.
“It felt like symbolic transition. That day that I was doing something musical theater, I got the call for the next biggest thing of my life, which was my first transitional role in film and TV, which was such a lovely experience. I was obviously just through the roof, like above the moon excited. I was surrounded by so much calm, peaceful energy that day at work, and all that energy went right through into the next year — from the time I got the call that I was cast into today,” Moon recalls.
Moon makes it abundantly clear that this series is “not a reboot.” This new iteration serves as a sequel to the original series. A Different World, a spin-off of The Cosby Show, premiered on September 24, 1987, and aired 144 episodes over six seasons on NBC. The show is widely revered as one of the most influential Black sitcoms of the ’80s and ’90s. Led by Lisa Bonet (as Denise Huxtable), it centered on students at a fictional historically Black college, Hillman. At a time when the television landscape rarely featured all-Black casts, the show ushered in a generation of HBCU graduates. Fans of the original series can expect a few updates.
“The original show, as people know, had a laugh track which was usually a part of the multi-camera comedy format,” Moon shares. “You have a live studio audience, and the writing is quicker, faster, way more comedic, with more drops of heartfelt beats. We are transitioning into a single-camera streaming service format, which means no live audience — which I know people are anticipating or expecting or worrying about. But I encourage you to just trust that there’s been so much nuance and care for it in this transition of the style of the show, so that people can really feel immersed in the universe.”
The cast of Netflix’s 'A Different World'Netflix/Eli Joshua Ade
For Moon, A Different World wasn’t just another Black sitcom. Long before she stepped into the fashionable shoes of Deborah Wayne — the daughter of original characters Whitley Gilbert and Dwayne Wayne (Jasmine Guy and Kadeem Hardison) — the groundbreaking series had already changed the trajectory of her family’s life.
Like many millennials and members of Generation Z, Moon discovered the beloved NBC comedy through reruns rather than its original network run. While she was too young to understand the show’s cultural impact, it quickly became a staple in her household.
“I was born in 2000, didn’t get to see it when it was initially premiering, but it’s such an iconic show that you can watch it in reruns,” Moon says. “It was on network television, so you could still catch it on cable, which I don’t even know if people watch anymore. But that was my style growing up because of my parents. My mom is an immigrant.”
For her mother, who is from Belize, A Different World was more than appointment television. Watching young Black students thrive and pursue their dreams at an HBCU offered a vision of what could be. It was a portrayal of Black college life that helped shape her own aspirations of building a future in the United States.
“Watching these iconic Black youth in a collegiate setting, being successful, being joyful, and experiencing young adult coming-of-age life was one of the inspirations for my mom to integrate in a way, because she saw herself in these people on TV. As so many people have with this iconic show, you see yourself represented, and you see that these things are possible for you. I really love that she had that connection, and that I was able to share that with her.”
Alijah Kai as Rashida, Maleah Joi Moon as Deborah, and Kennedi Reece as HazelNetflix/Daniel Delgado Jr.
That legacy now comes full circle. Decades after the original series inspired Moon’s mother to imagine a different world, her child now leads its next chapter, introducing a new generation to the same Hillman spirit of hope, ambition, and community that made A Different World the cultural juggernaut it is today. Its impact can also be found in the work of Lena Waithe (The Chi, Master of None), the prominent Black queer producer, actress, and screenwriter, who named her production company Hillman Grad in homage.
The commitment to expanding representation extends beyond the Wayne family. The Netflix sequel also introduces its first openly queer character, Amir, played by rising star Jordan Aaron Hall. Moon says Hall’s character reflects the thoughtful care the creative team has taken in bringing the beloved franchise into a new generation.
“Jordan Aaron Hall does play one of our original characters on the show. He is one of the new six that is completely original, not born from any of the legacy cast members. They’re treating his storyline with this really wonderful nuance and challenging what queer characters can be, particularly Black queer characters in TV who are so underrepresented. To see a queer Black male represented in that way is so inspiring.”
A Different World premieres on Netflix on September 24, 2026.
This article is part of OUT’s Sept-Oct 2026 print issue, on newsstands September 1. Support queer media and subscribe — or download the issue now through Apple News+, Zinio, Nook, or PressReader starting August 20.
Trixie & Katya on the cover of Out magazine's Sept-Oct 2026 print issue Photography by Albert Sanchez and Pedro Zalba
