Chibuikem Uche brought Nigerian fashion to the red carpet at Netflix’s “A Different World” premiere in Atlanta, wearing a custom suit by designer Ugo Mozie on September 21, 2026.
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Atlanta —
Almost 40 years after “A Different World” first showed TV viewers life at the fictional Hillman College, a new generation of students is arriving. Now, in the Netflix sequel, the show’s view of Black college life includes more of the African diaspora.
One of the new students at Hillman in the 10-episode-reboot is Kojo Achebe, a Ghanaian Nigerian international student from London who wants to be a fashion designer. He is played by British Nigerian actor Chibuikem Uche, who draws on his own family and culture to bring the character to life.
Showrunner Felicia Pride made a deliberate choice to expand Hillman’s world.
Elijah J. Roberts, Cornell Young IV, Alijah Kai, Kennedi Reece, Maleah Joi Moon, Felicia Pride, Jordan Aaron Hall, Chibuikem Uche, and Debbie Allen attend Netflix’s special screening on September 21, 2026, in Atlanta, Georgia.
“It was very important to me to show the diversity of Blackness that you experience at HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities),” Pride told CNN at the show’s premiere on September 21, at Morehouse College in Atlanta. The new class features students from a range of backgrounds. “I really just want to reflect the diversity” of the diaspora, Pride said.
Debbie Allen, the executive producer who produced and directed 83 of the original show’s 144 episodes, says the idea came from thinking about her own time at Howard University between 1968 and 1971.
“We had the largest foreign student body of any college [HBCU] in America, and most of them came from Africa,” Allen recalled. When it came to the reboot, “I said that we need an African student” on the show.
It’s a new step for a series that has been important to many Black Americans for pioneering positive representation of HBCUs. The original show included South African characters in a season 3 episode in 1990 about anti-apartheid activism, but this is the first time an African character is part of the main cast.
The original “A Different World” started in 1987 and followed students as they dealt with college, friendships, relationships, and social issues examining health and politics at Hillman. The show did more than entertain; it also introduced many viewers to campus life at HBCUs.
The Netflix series is coming to an audience that is more connected to the global diaspora.
For Uche, Achebe’s story is personal.
Uche was born in the UK to Nigerian parents, both of whom earned doctorates and valued education highly. He studied mathematics, worked in the corporate world, and later left to become an actor in Los Angeles.
Achebe deals with a similar struggle. He studies fashion merchandising, runs a business, and wants to be a designer, all while trying to meet his parents’ expectations.
“There’s a good amount of his experience that I see reflected in me,” Uche said.
That connection allowed him to add small details that made Achebe feel unique to his culture, not just labeled as African.
Uche helped choose everything from the snacks in Achebe’s dorm room, like the digestive biscuits he ate growing up, to the tea he drinks. There is a Nigerian flag in the room next to Ghanaian art. Pride said Uche also helped come up with ideas for the character, including naming Achebe’s fashion line “Chop Lyfe.”
These details matter to Uche because growing up he rarely saw people with his name or background on screen.
“To see a character with a name that you can recognize portrayed by an actor with a name that might be unfamiliar here but more familiar in different parts of the world, that is exciting,” he said. “It gives people someone to connect to, someone to identify with, maybe look up to.”
Having Achebe in the show allows the series to look at relationships within the Black diaspora through daily college life.
Roommates, friends, and occasional rivals — Cornell Young IV and Chibuikem Uche share the screen as Shaquille Johnson and Kojo Achebe in Netflix’s “A Different World,” the reimagining of the iconic series.
His roommate Shaquille Johnson, played by Cornell Young IV, and his best friend Amir Rodale, played by Jordan Aaron Hall, are part of a friend group that gets along easily even though they come from different backgrounds
“I think that shows what conversations, dynamics, and community engagement can look like,” Uche said.
For the original cast, this broader representation matches what Hillman was always meant to show.
Cree Summer, who first played Winifred “Freddie” Brooks at 18, said it feels “surreal” to see Hillman almost 40 years later.
“Black people are not a monolith,” Summer told CNN. “We are many different things, and it is so inspiring for young Black people at home to see themselves on screen.”
“There is so much power,” she added, “in the legitimacy of just simply being seen.”
That sense of responsibility also shaped what happened behind the scenes. Pride said the team formed an HBCU council of current students who gave feedback to the writers and on set. Cast members were encouraged to draw on their lived experiences to bring cultural and emotional nuance to their storylines.
“We know we have a responsibility to a global Black audience and beyond,” Pride said.
The new cast also gained something less obvious from the original series: a sense of family.
Uche said that Darryl Bell, an original cast member who played Ron Johnson Jr., took the sequel’s six young actors to dinner when they got to Atlanta to start filming. Bell, who reprises his role in the Netflix show playing Shaquille Johnson’s father, told them to look after their relationships with each other, just like the original cast did.
Many of the original actors are still close friends.
For Uche, joining that legacy and telling a clearly African story is important.
“When I was graduating and starting my career, I couldn’t imagine seeing something like this,” he said.
Now, he hopes young viewers from Africa, the diaspora, and elsewhere can see themselves in Achebe. The character is not perfect, but he is a young man working through family expectations, identity, and his own dreams.
Uche has a message for African viewers preparing to watch the sequel.
“Buckle up, come with an open mind, get ready to laugh, get ready to feel,” Uche said. “There’s a lot of heart in the show, and get ready to see an African student portrayed on camera.”
