AfriPulse
Kianna Underwood, a former child actor known for roles in early-aughts Nickelodeon hits including All That and Little Bill, was killed Friday while walking in New York City. She was 33.
Underwood starred in the last season of All That, a show that kicked off the career of controversial screenwriter Dan Schneider, who was later accused of abuse and misconduct while at the network, which he exited in 2018. Those claims were later investigated by true crime series Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV . (Schneider, for his part, sued the producers of the series for defamation, in a case that is currently ongoing.)
During her 2005 run on the series, she shared the screen with Amanda Bynes , Nick Cannon , and Kenan Thompson , the latter of whom encouraged Nickelodeon to “investigate more” following Quiet On Set’s release.
“I have fond memories of that place, and I have fond memories of my costars and stuff like that,” Thompson said. ”So to hear that they’ve gone through terrible things like that is really tough.”
Underwood was also the voice of Fuschia Glover in Little Bill, an animated series created by Bill Cosby . The Nickelodeon series, on which Kianna Underwood appeared from 1999-2004, was based on Cosby’s books of the same name. Cosby has faced allegations of sexual assault and abuse since at least 2014, when survivors including actor and model Beverly Johnson publicly accused him of drugging and raping them. Cosby was convicted of sexual assault in 2018, but was released from prison in 2021 after the conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
As a child star, Underwood also appeared on stage, spending a year with the first national tour of Hairspray in the role of Little Inez. Underwood also had a brief career in film, appearing in the 1999 indie The 24-Hour Woman alongside Rosie Perez, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and Patti LuPone.
In 2023, actor Angelique Bates, who appeared on All That with Underwood, took to Instagram to seek help for her former cast mate, who Bates said was struggling with homelessness. “She’s one of us and she needs help but she’s not getting it … and nobody’s speaking on Kianna Underwood,” Bates said at the time. According to the New York Post , Underwood remained unhoused at the time of her death.
“Y’all have no idea how much this one hurts…Sick to my stomach,” Bates said Saturday via Instagram. “So many people failed baby girl,” she concluded.
Lisa Foiles, another former All That cast mate, mourned Underwood via Instagram stories early Saturday, writing, “I heard the news and I am absolutely devastated. Still processing it. I’m utterly heartbroken.”
An NYPD spokesperson says via statement that Underwood was crossing the intersection of Watkins Street and Pitkin Avenue in Brooklyn at 6:45 a.m. Friday when she was struck first by the driver of a black Ford SUV, then was “subsequently struck by a black and gray sedan.” She died immediately, police say. Neither driver remained at the scene, and as of publication time, “There are no arrests, and the investigation remains ongoing by the NYPD Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad.”
I Was Held Hostage in Panama in 1989. I Know the Real Cost of Trump’s “America First.”
The Life—and Shocking Murder—of Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten
Belle Burden On Her Family’s “Legacy of Infidelity”
Susie Wiles, JD Vance, and the “Junkyard Dogs”: The White House Chief of Staff On Trump’s Second Term
Source: VanityFair | Read the Full Story…
