Here's Where Geoffrey The Butler From The Fresh Prince Is Today
Geoffrey the butler is one of the most beloved characters on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The role made actor Joseph Marcell famous, and after the show, his career continued with a variety of roles.
In a Yorkshire Post interview, Marcell explained his level-headed approach to his acting career. Early on, an acting teacher took him to the side, he says, "and she asked me if I wanted to be famous, really famous, and make lots and lots of money, or did I want to be an accomplished actor with a long career?"
"Even back then, I knew instinctively that it had to be the latter," Marcell said. "So I went down that route. And, you know, it hasn't turned out that badly at all, has it?"
He added, "I've done so much varied stuff. Opportunities keep on popping up, and for that I am so very grateful."
In 2017, the British actor reunited with Fresh Prince co-star Tatyana Ali for Lifetime's Wrapped Up in Christmas. In 2019, he appeared in the films The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, about a young inventor in Malawi, and Hero, about a Caribbean war hero. In 2020, Marcell will star in Exorcism of God, which Deadline reports is about a priest possessed by the devil, and he'll guest-star in Ratched, a series about a nurse at a mental institution.
Clearly, the actor can't help but stay busy. Here's what else Joseph Marcell has been up to lately.
Joseph Marcell is a major part of the London theater scene
Joseph Marcell now lives in London, where he grew up, according to CBS News. He's a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a board member for the Globe Theatre. "The screen pays better, but the stage is for the soul," Marcell told Kreol Magazine in 2013. "The stage forces you to maintain a performance over several months."
In a 2014 interview with Caribbean Beat, Marcell discussed how hard it is to make it in the British theater scene as a black man. "Things have gotten harder for actors [in Britain] — there are less avenues," he explained. "When I started, non-white actors were simply fodder, and things haven't changed — they've just become more so. Black people aren't represented as much as we'd like in Britain, and there's a 'black ceiling.'
Despite that "black ceiling," Marcell has managed to find success in the theater world. In 2019, Playbill announced his starring role in Ages on the Moon at London's Vault Theatre. In 2020, he starred in Alone in Berlin, a play adapted from Hans Fallada's book about a German couple who finds out their son died in battle during World War II.
Joseph Marcell is still in touch with Fresh Prince co-stars
Joseph Marcell still gets recognized as Geoffrey, decades after The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air wrapped. In a 2014 Theater Mania interview, he said that it happens everywhere: "Across the world. The. World. From Adana in Turkey to Philadelphia, every day... this morning."
Marcell even heard Geoffrey references while he was on stage for King Lear. He recalled, "There's a wonderful moment in our production... where Lear turns to the audience at the very first moment when Goneril shows her disrespect to the monarch and says, 'Does anyone here know me?' and somebody inevitably shouts 'Geoffrey!'"
Marcell and his Fresh Prince castmates were close-knit. "We'd spend time together, take our families out," he told Caribbean Beat in 2014. "My family — I have a wife, a son, and a daughter — would fly out to Hawaii or Jamaica for Christmas. Will [Smith] and I got on very well — we were both very new to it all, so we stuck together."
That quality time hasn't stopped. As he told Yorkshire Post in March 2020, "It was one of the happiest times of my life, and Will and I still keep in touch, and we meet up every now and then — there are cast reunions as well."
In 2014, Marcell, Karyn Parsons, and Tayana Ali supported Alfonso Ribeiro in-person while he competed on Dancing With the Stars. The cast also documented another reunion in 2017 with an Instagram photo.
Joseph Marcell is a Goodwill Ambassador for Saint Lucia
Although Joseph Marcell has spent most of his life in England, he was born on the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia. The Government of Saint Lucia named Marcell as a Goodwill Ambassador for the country in January 2020. In that role, he is expected to "represent Saint Lucia locally, regionally and internationally" and leverage his "profile and celebrity status to tap into access for growth and to forge strategic partnership between the Cultural Development Foundation and other related agencies."
Marcell responded to the good news by tweeting, "Honoured to have been asked to be a Goodwill Ambassador for St Lucia." The actor has received a diplomatic passport and the title of "Your Excellency" — though he said that he "won't insist" on being referred to by that title (via Twitter).
While many of Marcell's post-Fresh Prince projects have been based in London, he did take part in a Caribbean animated series called Battledream Chronicle. During a 2017 appearance on Breakfast Television Toronto, Marcell said the show is "the first animated Caribbean series of our lifetime, so it's really special."
At 71 years old, Marcell has managed to remain an iconic '90s actor and a well-respected member of the London theater community, while also giving back to his home country of Saint Lucia. He is truly an international treasure! We can't wait to see what he accomplishes next.