Lisa Bonet
(1967 - )
Lisa Bonet was born in San Francisco but has lived most of her life in New York and Los Angeles, where she attended Reseda High School and Celluloid Actor's Studio. Lisa is the child of a Jewish mother and a black father, who was a music teacher. Her parents divorced when she was young and she began acting in commercials at the age of 11. At age 16 she landed the role of Denise Huxtable in the hit comedy series "The Cosby Show." The show made her a popular actress. In the mid-'80s, she met 'Lenny Kravitz' (qv) at a New Edition concert in Los Angeles. At the time, Lenny was a struggling, unknown musician who went by the name Romeo Blue. It wasn't long after they started dating when Lisa and Lenny's relationship was all over the tabloids. The two lovers were said to be soulmates, as they both shared a neo-hippie persona and bi-racial background (Lenny is also half-black, half-Jewish). In 1987, Lisa and Lenny got married (they went to Las Vegas and eloped) and they had a daughter named Zoe in 1988. By 1989, Lenny had landed a record deal and recorded his first album, "Let Love Rule." Lisa co-wrote a couple of songs on the album and she was said to be the inspiration for most of the album. Lisa even directed Lenny's first video for "Let Love Rule." But Lisa and Lenny's relationship was full of problems from the start, including intense scrutiny from the media and Lenny's reported infidelities. It was around this time that Lisa made a deliberate attempt to shed her "goody-two-shoes" Cosby daughter image by making the controversial movie "Angel Heart," where she had racy nude and sex scenes. The backlash from making "Angel Heart" is rumored to have prompted Lisa's exit from "The Cosby Show." But with Bill Cosby's help, Lisa landed on another comedy series, "A Different World," in which she starred as a student at a mostly black university. But perhaps due to her personal problems, Lisa began showing up late for work (or sometimes not at all), and she was fired from the series. She and Lenny separated in a bitter breakup and they eventually divorced in 1993. Lenny's second album, "Mama Said," filled with songs about heartache, is said to be mostly about Lisa. After her divorce from Lenny, Lisa faded from the high-profile stardom she had experienced when she was in a relationship with him, while Lenny became more famous than his ex-wife. No longer an in-demand actress, Lisa occasionally made B-movies, many of which went straight to video. In 1992, Lisa started dating yoga instructor Bryan Kest. They began living together and had a child in the mid-'90s. It was around this time that Lisa legally changed her name to Lilakoi Moon, although she still uses the name Lisa Bonet for her entertainment career. Lisa has said that she has deliberately cut back on acting so that she could spend more time with her family. However, she did make a brief return to the spotlight in 1998 by co-starring with Will Smith in the big-budget hit movie "Enemy Of The State", and had an important role in "High Fidelity" in 2000. Lisa has since become friends with her ex-husband Lenny again. And in an "aren't we all just one big happy family" situation: Lisa's best friend is 'Cree Summer' (qv), a former co-star on "A Different World" who released an album produced by her long-time friend 'Lenny Kravitz' (qv). It was Lisa who suggested that Lenny produce the album and Lisa directed a promotional video for the album. Lisa currently lives in the Los Angeles area with her children.
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