How Producer Felicia D. Henderson Went From Writing Jokes To Spearheading Black Dramas

Black history needs to be celebrated all year long, but Black History Month is an apt time to give flowers to our giants whose talents and contributions often go overlooked. Especially as we have lost so many icons this year already, including Mary Wilson, Eric Jerome Dickey, Hank Aaron and Cicely Tyson, the need to give our heroes flowers while they’re still able to smell them becomes even more apparent.

Hosts Ja’han Jones, Taryn Finley and Shaquille Romblay uplift some of the unsung living legends of today on the latest episode of “And That’s That!” They sing singer-songwriter extraordinaire Jazmine Sullivan’s praises, shine a light on Black artist and scholar David Driskell and give props to Hollywood veteran Vivica A. Fox.

Producer Felicia D. Henderson also sits down with HuffPost senior enterprise editor Erin E. Evans to talk about her career journey. Henderson has worked on “Moesha,” “Soul Food,” “Sister, Sister,” “Family Matters” and other TV shows. While Henderson has helped break the mold of how Black stories are told on television, she tells Evans that her work breaking down boundaries wasn’t planned, but a result of her following her “creative curiosity.”

“That I show gratitude to God for giving me a gift that I absolutely love and passionate about is to do it well, to never sort of do it, to do the best that I can,” Henderson said. “In some ways when I have looked at my career and looked at the careers of brands and just colleagues, I see I’d probably be a lot richer if I had such a plan. But I never did, to be honest. I care about my intellectual curiosity. Creative curiosity has always led me more than, ‘Here’s where I want to be in the business in five years.’”

Henderson deserves her flowers.

Listen to the full episode, including Evans’ full interview with Henderson, below.