Personal life

The fourth of six children, Yoba was born in Bronx, New York; his parents are Mahmoudah Young (née Lanier) and Abdullah Yoba. He is divorced from Trisha Mann, a model and actress who starred with Yoba in the stage play His Woman, His Wife in 2000. Yoba has three children: daughter Dena with Mann, and another son Josiah and a daughter Pria from a previous relationship. Yoba is a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.

Career

In 1994, Yoba began his role as NYPD Detective J.C. Williams on the popular FOX police drama series New York Undercover, opposite Michael DeLorenzo. Yoba and DeLorenzo (who is of Puerto Rican and Italian descent) made television history, as the series was the first police drama on American television to feature two people of color in the starring roles. Yoba's work on New York Undercover earned him three consecutive NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series (in 1996, 1997, and 1998). The series was cancelled in 1998, with Yoba as the only actor to appear in all 89 episodes.

An accomplished singer and stage actor, Yoba's talents were showcased in His Woman His Wife, in which he had the lead role.

Yoba has also appeared in films such as Cool Runnings and Criminal. He has made appearances on the FOX television series Arrested Development as Ice, a bounty hunter whose real love is party planning, and had a recurring role as Brock Harris on the UPN sitcom Girlfriends. Yoba also appeared in the FX Networks crime drama Thief and the NBC crime drama Raines. He appeared as Gavin in the 2007 Tyler Perry film Why Did I Get Married? and its 2010 sequel Why Did I Get Married Too? In 2009, he co-starred as astronaut Ted Shaw on the futuristic ABC drama Defying Gravity. Recently, he announced his plans to bring back New York Undercover to the small screen in a modern TV series adaptation of the original series. Law & Order writer Courtney Parker penned a spec script for networks to bid on.

2011 to 2012, Yoba appeared as former FBI Special Agent Bill Harken on Alphas, a science fiction drama series about a team of people with special abilities who belong to a secret department attached to the DOD. In 2013, Yoba joined the cast of Revolution as Jim Hudson, a former captain of the Monroe Republic. In 2015, he joined the cast of Lee Daniels’ Empire as Vernon Turner, Lucious Lyon's business partner and chairman of Empire Entertainment. Yoba's character was killed off in the Season 1 finale due to a network decision despite false rumors of his getting fired.

Filmography

Internet meme

Since 2009, the popularity of Malik Yoba has spiked in the Russian segment of the Internet, as result of his surname being identical to the abbreviation "YOBA" - local Internet meme about casual video games.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]