Girlfriends, a popular show on UPN and CW, gave the world its first look at Reggie Hayes as William Jerome Dent. The show ran from 2000 to 2008 and made Tracee Ellis Ross become one of the biggest stars on TV. Ross went on to have even more success with Black-Ish, but the rest of the group seemed to get lost in the past. Hayes, on the other hand, is having a career comeback and is having a huge comeback moment on TV’s biggest success.
Reggie Hayes is from Chicago. He started playing in the 1990s on shows like Roswell, Being John Malkovich, Will & Grace, and Charlie’s Angels. He got the part of William on Girlfriends, where he was the only man among the four main characters. He was also Tracee’s secret love interest for a few seasons before the two tried to date, which was a fun plot point.
He was a senior partner at Goldberg, Swedelson, McDonald, and Lee. At one point in the show, he married Persia White’s character, but in the end, he ended up with a woman who wasn’t part of the main group.
Girlfriends was finally canceled in 2008 because it didn’t get enough viewers. After the show ended, Reggie seemed to work on and off, but when his money ran out, he moved in with his sister for a while. He talked about how hard things were for him and said, “”Those were pretty bad years.” I made it work for a year with my small leftover checks, and then I moved into my sister’s garage for six years”.”
Hayes says that after Girlfriends ended, he was treated like “just another guy” and that real doors didn’t open for him the way they did for his female co-stars or the guys on better-known shows like Friends. “I was the star of “this long-running show, but I wasn’t Matt LeBlanc or one of the other kids from “Friends” who” got jobs after their show ended.”
When the girls from Girlfriends got back together for an episode of Black-ish, Hayes was in the hospital for tests because he didn’t know what was wrong with him. He said, “”I have congestive heart failure, and it was hard to breathe”.” At the time, he said he had moved out of his sister’s basement and into a place in the Valley with “nice roommates.”
Well, Hayes hit the jackpot when he got the part of Superintendent Collins on the new hit show Abbott Elementary. Hayes, like series regulars Tyler James Williams and Sheryl Lee Ralph, is a familiar face from the golden age of television. He joins a group led by Quinta Brunson, who went from being a viral star to a TV powerhouse.
Reggie doesn’t seem too happy about the comeback, and if you look at his Instagram, you can see that he hasn’t even posted about the part. He had an important role in the first season, and his IMDB page says he has a “recurring role,” which means we might see more of him as the show goes on. Well done to him.