Porscha Coleman Talks ‘Dad Stop Embarrassing Me’ and ’90s TV [Interview]

Porscha Coleman worked for Jamie Foxx’s Sirius XM radio network The Foxxhole long before she ever auditioned for one of his film or TV projects.

She would make casual conversation with him when she saw him, but was there to be a radio host and had no intention of talking about her acting career with him like she was sure countless other people did.

Still, she was thrilled when a movie script came her way with Foxx’s name listed as director and executive producer (presumably the upcoming film All-Star Weekend). Coleman booked a role in that film and soon after was presented the script for Dad Stop Embarrassing Me!, starring and executive produced by Foxx. Coleman landed the role of his character Brian Dixon’s sister Chelsea Dixon after one audition. 

I got to talk to Coleman about what it was like playing Foxx’s sister and David Alan Grier’s daughter. We also discussed why Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! is more than an average comedy and got nostalgic about important TV shows of the ’90s. 

“Every day to me was a lesson on set when you’re working with geniuses like those two,” Coleman said, about working with Foxx and Grier. “It was just a dream come true to be on set with them side by side and having them play family members — a father and a brother. It was easy because every day going to work felt like, ‘okay, I’m around people that are so talented.’”

Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! centers around Brian Dixon and his daughter Sasha (Kyla-Drew), who has recently come to live with her dad after her mother’s death. The two barely know each other, so they need the extra support they get from the fact that Brian’s sister Chelsea and his dad “Pops” live there, too. 

Brian is trying to keep his mom’s cosmetics company, Bae Cosmetics alive, but he’s doing so without help from his sister. She’s a talented businesswoman in the marketing world but prefers to work at whatever soda company is offering her the most perks on any given week. 

“I mean, she’s got a 401k, she’s got a company car. She has everything that she wants in this company,” Coleman said about why Chelsea won’t join Bae. “So I don’t think she doesn’t believe in the family business. She absolutely does, but she also wants that security… We might have a passion that we love, but it might not pay as well as the job that we have. So, she’s just torn.”

It’s a relatable dilemma, as is Chelsea’s search for love, even though she’s been divorced three times. 

Coleman thinks Chelsea is looking for a very specific kind of love. “I want to feel like ‘ok, I can have the same relationship my father had with my mother before she passed away,'” she said. 

She may have already found it in her brother’s best friend Johnny, but Chelsea especially is very reluctant to admit out loud that what they have is love. Her actions tell a different story. 

“At the moment in the episode of the barbecue when she is so upset and jealous that he brings somebody else, to me that was like ‘Oh wow, she does really care for Johnny,” Coleman explained. “I think she has this tough exterior but it does show that she is kind of soft and emotional in a sense for her to feel that he disrespected her [by] bringing somebody else. But technically she has no right to feel that way because they’re not together.” 

Coleman thinks there is a very specific reason that Chelsea gravitates to Johnny. “I do feel, in a way, that Johnny is safe. And I think a lot of times people date for safety,” she said. “Whether it’s fair or not who knows but they date because something is convenient, they also know they can trust somebody.” 

At any moment during their “Netflix and chill” sessions, Chelsea could change her mind and decide to take the relationship more seriously. But Coleman is very clear about one thing: “I love it, they’re giving her the power,” she said. “Girls have as much power and I think a lot of times we don’t realize that.” 

Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! gives us belly laughs with Chelsea and Johnny’s antics but it’s also not above giving us a gut check when it comes to the issues that the Black community faces. 

Sasha and her friends are racially profiled and followed into Sasha’s own driveway by police, even though Sasha’s friend Zia is Johnny’s daughter and Johnny is a cop. 

“We were proud. We were proud that even though we’re a comedy we can still address such issues,” Coleman stated. “Because a lot of times people think, ‘okay, a comedy is just meant to be funny. I just want to make people laugh. I don’t have to make them think too hard as long as they get the joke and as long as the punchline is there.’” 

Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! does not shy away from emotional complexities because of its genre. It reminds Coleman of some of the Black sitcoms of the 90s that she guest-starred on like The Parkers, which Netflix has recently added to its lineup. 

“I think that show was so groundbreaking because it starred a single mother and her daughter,” Coleman said. It reminds her of her own dynamic with her mother, who is divorced from her dad. 

The Parkers also taught Coleman how to act in front of a live audience, which she was supposed to do for Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! before the pandemic hit.

“You can’t get any better experience than that,” she said, about acting live. Even though the Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! cast had to act in a nearly empty studio, everyone still tried to bring the same energy they would have if the seats were filled. 

“We had to really go above and beyond to be like ‘okay if an audience was here, how would we be doing this, what would we be saying? What would we be feeling?'” Coleman shared. 

Coleman is hoping Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! gets a Season 2 so they might have a chance to get in front of that live audience, but she also hopes that Chelsea joins Bae to make it a true family business. 

Although she was featured on some iconic Black family comedies, Coleman remembers that an all-Black cast was not the norm in the ’90s. 

“I remember being the only Black girl on certain sets,” she said. “It was like… It was a white cast and it was one Black person.” 

“There [are] so many programs that Netflix has right now [that have non-white casts] and that’s why I’m so glad that we’re on such a network that has such diversity. I think you can’t ask for anything more [than] to watch a network like that really touch on so many issues with different races and I think that’s important.” 

Coleman can also be seen on Amazon Prime’s Paradise City and she’s a singer with new music releasing soon!

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Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! is streaming now on Netflix.

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