Brandee Evans

Brandee Evans was born in Memphis, Tennessee. Before her acting career, she worked as a high school English teacher and held the Chair position of the English department in her hometown. Her mother’s experiences with multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s have significantly influenced her advocacy work as a caregiver. Evans is also an accomplished dancer and choreographer, having appeared in music videos, toured, danced, and created for artists globally. She appeared with pop singer Katy Perry in 2010 in the music video for “California Gurls” as “Bubblegum Girl” and choreographed Ledisi’s “I Blame You” music video, also touring as a backup dancer on Ledisi’s The Truth Tour in 2014.

Evans gained significant recognition for her leading role as Mercedes Woodbine in the Starz drama series, P-Valley, with critics describing her performance as “wonderfully compelling.” The show premiered in 2020, and its second season in June 2022 broke Starz’s growth record with an over 1,000% increase in viewership, marking the largest season-over-season gain in the network’s history. For her work on P-Valley, Brandee received two NAACP Image Award nominations in the ‘Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series’ category for seasons one and two and won the Women’s Image Network Awards in 2021 for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series.

Her acting credits also include roles in independent films such as Thirsty (2023) and B-Boy Blues (BET+, 2022), as well as television performances in Rolling Into Christmas (BET+, 2022), A Rich Christmas (BET, 2021), The Family Business (BET & BET+ 2020-2022), Games People Play (BET, 2019), Dear Santa I Need a Date (TVOne, 2019), Lethal Weapon (Fox, 2018), and The Bobby Brown Story (BET+, 2018). She is set to appear in the Bleecker Street comedy The Fabulous Four, playing Sheryl Lee Ralph’s daughter, Color Book, and the independent feature film Incision.