Dad 101

Finding his feet as a single father is giving busy TV host Kenan Williams a new lease on life in sitcom Kenan.

- CRAIG FALCK

Kenan

Season 1 Wednesdays (from 25 August) 1Magic (*103) 18:00

His latest role is one that’s all too familiar to Kenan Thompson in the family-centric comedy series Kenan (2021-now): he’s playing a former sitcom star and father. “The difference is that I am happily married and my wife [non-celeb Christine Evangeline] is very much alive,” says Kenan the actor. He’s best known for his sitcom Kenan & Kel (1996-2000) and the 43-year-old has two young daughters. His character Kenan Williams on the other hand is a widower and he’s doing his best to raise his two daughters: bright Aubrey and practical joker Birdie (real-life sisters Dani and Dannah Lane, who played sisters Lacey and Cagney Jeffords in 2020 in comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine, 2013-2021).

“Kenan is juggling his family and his work as a popular host on a morning show. And he’s trying to make both his live-in father-in-law and brother happy with the way he’s running this family. He hasn’t even had time to grieve and that is going to be a problem,” says Kenan the actor, who also serves as executive producer on the show.