11/24/2025
When Yvette Nicole Brown talks about her father, one word comes to mind: honor.
Twelve years ago, the actress—beloved for roles on Community, A Black Lady Sketch Show, Drake & Josh, and more—quietly stepped into a new role: full-time caregiver for her dad after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
She moved him from Ohio to California, left a hit sitcom at a career high, and rebuilt her life around caring for him.
“I didn’t know what I was doing,” she says. “Twelve years later, I still don’t know what I’m doing. There’s no handbook for how you care for someone in that official space. For me, I never knew what it meant to be a caregiver.”
In an ESSENCE exclusive, she opens up about living a public life while doing the quiet, invisible work so many people shoulder: caring for a parent with dementia. Visit ESSENCE.com to read more.
