She’s
not just another pretty face. She makes it her business to put the faces
of African Americans on the small and big screens in the entertainment
world. For years, Daphne Maxwell Reid, best known as Aunt Viv on the hit
comedy The Fresh Prince of Bel Air has constantly seen her name in lights.
Currently, she plays a recurring character, Mrs. Hunter, on UPN’s
Eve.
In 1997, after years in front of the camera,
she and her husband, actor Tim Reid, established New Millennium Studios
in Petersburg, Va. The first full-service film studio in Virginia, New
Millennium is a means for dreams to come true for filmmakers. In addition
to serving as chief operating officer and business affairs principal of
the studio, Maxwell Reid also has worked as executive producer on various
projects at the facility.
Daphne Maxwell Reid
New Millennium Studios has produced feature films (including
Asunder and For Real, both for which Maxwell Reid served as
executive producer), television series (including Linc’s and
American Legacy Television) and commercials. Maxwell Reid also has
starred in television series such as CBS’s Frank’s Place
and Snoops and the acclaimed feature film Once Upon a Time …
When We Were Colored.
"Dream
beyond your environment by challenging yourself to make a change and go for
it!"
Born in Manhattan, Maxwell Reid entered the
spotlight by accident. After graduating from the Bronx High School of Science,
she majored in interior design and architecture at Northwestern University
in Illinois. While she was in college, one of Maxwell Reid’s former
high school teachers sent her photograph to a magazine editor. As a result,
she was featured in Seventeen magazine, was signed by a modeling
agency and became the first black woman to appear on the cover of Glamour
magazine.
Also a fashion designer and expert seamstress,
Maxwell Reid invests in lives through the Tim Reid Scholarship Foundation.
Created by her and her husband, the foundation raises scholarship funds for
students attending historically black colleges and universities in Virginia.
Maxwell Reid offers the following advice to
America’s youth: "Never let your environment define you. Dream
beyond your environment by challenging yourself to make a change and go for
it!"
