Kimberly Hébert Gregory, who was best known for her role as Dr. Belinda Brown on the HBO series “Vice Principals,” has died. She was 52.
Kimberly died Friday, her ex-husband Chester Gregory confirmed Sunday on Instagram. No cause was given.
“Kimberly Hébert Gregory You Were Brilliance Embodied, A Black Woman Whose Mind Lit Every Room, Whose Presence Carried Both Fire And Grace. You Taught Us Lessons In Courage, In Artistry, In Resilience, And In How To Keep Showing Up, Even When Life Demanded More Than Its Share,” he wrote.
“Through Our Best, Through Our Greatest Challenges, What Remained Was Love, Respect, And A Bond No Storm Could Break.”
“So Much More Than Ex-Wife, You Were My Friend. Our Son, The Song We Wrote Together, Is The Living Echo Of Your Light. Through Him, Your Brilliance Will Never Fade. Through Him, Your Laughter Will Always Resound.”
“Thank You, Kimberly, For Every Chapter We Shared. Your Story Was Never Defined By The Battle, But By The Beauty You Carried Through It.”
“Rest In Power, Rest In Peace, Rest In The Eternal Knowing That You Are Loved, Always. Kim… You Did Good,” Chester concluded.
Kimberly starred as a brand new principal locked in perpetual battles with two vice-principals, Neal and Lee, in the comedy series. While speaking to Vanity Fair in August 2016, she admitted that the dynamic portrayed on the series — a Black woman tasked with leading a complex organization while contending with two resentful white men who are her juniors — was all too familiar in her own life.
“I’ve been so fascinated by that response,” she told the outlet. “I feel like particularly as a woman of color, being the only [one] in a space is not novel, right? Competing against white men for something is not novel. I’ve never looked at [the show] as racist. I’ve just looked at it as, ‘O.K., that’s how it is.’”
She also addressed the real topic of the show: male entitlement. “If we want to get specific, it’s white-male entitlement,” she added. “What that looks like is every TV show, every movie, everything we ever watch.”
“I don’t think we would respond in the exact same way if Melissa McCarthy was the principal, and they did the exact same thing [to her],” Kimberly added. “As a nation, as viewers, as [an] industry, we have to be ready to accept black women specifically competing and maybe getting what appears to be attacked by white men. That, to me, is casting equality.”
In 2017 Kimberly told People she knew she wanted to act from a young age. “I knew at a very early age that I wanted to do something similar to what I saw being celebrated at the show,” she explained. “I told my mom at the time that I was going to win one. I have a lot to live up to now!”
But she also admitted that the industry wasn’t easy to navigate. “The biggest hurdle for me has been to believe utterly in myself and my body,” she explained. “This industry can send some very strong messages about what’s acceptable and what’s adequate. As a woman of color, I’ve had to remind myself of this fact over and over again: ‘Your dad and mom have said that you are beautiful, and you can be anything you wanted to be.’”
Kimberly Hébert Gregory was born on December 7, 1972, in Houston, Texas. She graduated from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and obtained her BA in Psychology from Mount Holyoke College in 1994.
She began her stage career with the Chicago Theatre Company in the 1990s and enjoyed a vibrant television career that included appearances on “Gossip Girl,” “Law & Order” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Kimberly is survived by her son.
