News Americas, LOS ANGELES, CA, Mon. Sept. 22, 2014: Many remember him as Carlton Banks on the 90s show “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” But Trinidadian-American Alfonso Ribeiro has shown he may be the person to beat this season on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”
Ribeiro’s jive with his partner Witney Carson, earned him universal praise from judges – Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Julianne Hough – last Tuesday night as Season 19 of the show began. They all called his performance the best dance of the night andgave him a nine which landed 36 points out of a possible perfect 40.
Now Ribeiro is getting ready to perform again tonight, September 22nd, and according to his latest Tweet, fans can expect the Samba from him and his partner.
“#teamwitfonso we are doing the samba to Will Smith’s Getting Jiggy With It. Hope you love as much as @WitneyCarson and I. @DancingABC,” Riberio tweeted last night.
Ribeiro, who is now an actor, director, host, and singer was born in New York in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, to parents from Trinidad and Tobago, Michael and Joy (De Leon) Ribeiro.
He began his career at the age of eight and first gained recognition in 1983, when he played a leading role in the Broadway musical, ‘The Tap Dance Kid.’ He received positive reviews for his performance, and was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award.
He also appeared in one of Michael Jackson’s Pepsi television commercials as a dancer in 1984. The same year, Ribeiro was cast as Rick Schroder’s best friend on the TV series ‘Silver Spoons.’ In 1985, Alfonso appeared as himself in a commercial on MTV advertising a dance instruction book he authored, called “Alfonso’s Breakin’ & Poppin’ Book” and in 1986, he released a 12″ rap record called ‘Timebomb’ on Prism Records.
But Ribeiro’s most notable role was that of spoiled, rich Carlton Banks in on the NBC sitcom, ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,’ from 1990 to 1996. He played the cousin to Will Smith’s lead character. The Carlton character was known for frequently dancing to Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual,” a dance move that gained fame as “The Carlton Dance.”
In 2008, Ribeiro began hosting the game show Catch 21 on GSN. He also directed some episodes of ‘Meet the Browns’ and a majority of the season two episodes of ‘Are We There Yet?’ television series. In 2013, Ribeiro began hosting his second game show ‘Spell-Mageddon’ on ABC Family.
Ribeiro took part as a contestant in the thirteenth series of the British celebrity jungle-based reality show, ‘I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here’ on ITV, in November and December 2013.
He stands to rake in $345K if he wins DWTS. Ribeiro is married to writer Angela Unkrich. They currently reside in Los Angeles and have a son named Alfonso Lincoln Ribeiro, Jr. who was born on October 27, 2013. He has a daughter from a previous marriage.
