Jasmine Guy (born March 10, 1962) is an American actress, director, singer and dancer. She is known for her role as Dina in the 1988 film School Daze and as Whitley Gilbert-Wayne on the NBC The Cosby Show spin-off A Different World, which originally ran from 1987 to 1993. Guy won four consecutive NAACP Image Awards from 1990 through 1993 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on the show. She played Roxy Harvey on Dead Like Me and as Sheila "Grams" Bennet on The Vampire Diaries. More recently, she played the role of Gemma, Richard Webber’s friend and potential love interest on Grey's Anatomy. Early life Born in Boston, Massachusetts, to a Black American father and Caucasian mother, Guy was raised in the affluent historic Collier Heights neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia, where she attended Northside Performing Arts High School. Her mother, the former Jaye Rudolph, was a former high-school teacher, and her father, the Reverend William Vincent Guy, was pastor of the historic Friendship Baptist Church of Atlanta, which served as an early home to Spelman College; he was also a college instructor in philosophy and religion. At the age of 17, she moved to New York City to study dance at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. Acting career Television roles Guy began her television career with a non-speaking role, as a dancer, in seven episodes of the 1982 television series Fame under the direction of choreographer Debbie Allen. Guy today remains best known for her starring role as Whitley Gilbert in the television sitcom A Different World. A spin-off of The Cosby Show and created by Bill Cosby himself, the show aired from 1987 to 1993 on NBC. Guy wrote three episodes of the show and directed one, in addition to appearing in every episode: she started as a co-star, but ended up replacing the show's original star Lisa Bonet, who left the series. Guy was nominated for and won six consecutive NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. In addition to her defining role on A Different World, she appeared in a 1991 episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as Kayla, one of Will Smith's girlfriends. In 1992, Guy appeared in CBS's Stompin' at the Savoy alongside Vanessa Williams, again under the direction of Debbie Allen, and in 1993, she played the mother of Halle Berry's character