‘I Just Wanted to be Free’: ‘Bernie Mac Show’ Star Camille Winbush Reveals Why She Created Her OnlyFans Character ‘Once The Momentum’ From Her Acting Career Stalled
Actress Camille Winbush shed her innocent persona when she launched her OnlyFans account a year ago, but the process of growing out of her childhood character actually began years ago.
The former child star is best known for playing Vanessa “Nessa” Thompkins on “The Bernie Mac Show” alongside the late comedian Bernie Mac and actors Dee Davis and Jeremy Suarez, who respectively played her sister and brother, Bryana and Jordan.
Cast of “The Bernie Mac Show”: Bernie Mac, Jeremy Suarez, Kellita Smith, Dee Dee Davis, and Camille Winbush. (Photos: Berniesdaughter/Instagram; Camilleswinbush/Instagram.)
For starters, Winbush, now 34 years old, told Comedy Hype that she “did not have the team at the time that was fighting aggressively for me to get into new doors.”
Secondly, she said, “I was a teenager going into my 20s and had been working since I was 2 years old, and I didn’t really want to keep working and being on set every day and having to give up a social life to work. I wasn’t really that interested in pursuing it at the time. I just wanted to be free for a little bit.”
When “The Bernie Mac Show” went off the air in 2006 after five seasons and 105 episodes, the then-16-year-old would go on to have a reccurring role on “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.” The teenage drama is her last big role, according to IMDb. She said that “once that momentum slows down, it’s harder to jump back in where you left off because now you’re 10 steps behind everybody else.”
Though Winbush has appeared on various TV shows and films since the teenage drama, she continues to be recognized as Nessa. A reality that was evident when her sexy OnlyFans photos surfaced from the platform’s paywall.
To the surprise of many, Davis, 28, was also onboard with posting seductive images of herself to pull in cash.
A disapproving ex-fan was especially critical of their decision, writing, “Broke jezebels still got judgment coming.” Someone else said, “Imagine having to do OF bc your acting careers never went beyond The Bernie Mac show…yikes on a bike.”
At the time, Winbush hit back at critics, boldly declaring that she was in her “villain era” and would never be a “disgrace.”
She tweeted, “I’ve never been arrested, never been on drugs, don’t have any baby daddies, I pay all my taxes, I drink water and mind the business that pays me…If the most scandalous thing strangers can say about me is that I took some sexy pics as an adult and made a couple mil in less than 2yrs, I think I’m doing alright as a human in todays society.”
Last June, during her appearance on Kenya Duke’s “Truly Kenya Podcast,” she revealed that she discussed her provocative venture with her parents. They both gave her the OK. In May, she posed a question alluding to the difference in outrage surrounding her photos and adult content on cable.
“You see more skin on HBO than I show on my page. ‘CandidlyCam’ is a character I play from the comfort & safety of my own home,” she wrote. “Plus, I make significantly more money that goes directly into my pocket that I would from a contract salary on a tv show. Just curious where the line of acceptable content is drawn.”
Oddly enough, the majority of Winbush’s subscribers are male viewers of “The Bernie Mac Show,” many of whom have shared that she was their first crush. Despite perspectives of her side gig, Winbush says she does aspire to marry and have kids.
