With an iconic and successful career which has expanded over several decades, there’s no doubt that Cassi Davis is an actress who couldn’t help but gain the love and admiration of her audience with her talent and charisma since her debut in the entertainment business in the late 1980s.
Despite being quite a well-loved actress and turning her roles into definite fan favorites, Cassi has also been the subject of ill-intentioned rumors, the most recent one being a death hoax which affirmed she had died from lung cancer in February 2023.
While it’s unclear why these types of rumors spread about her, it’s safe to say that all was a lie, and nothing life-threatening has happened to her so far. As Cassi’s friend and producer Tyler Perry affirmed on social media, the actress is fortunately alive, in good health, and pretty much still actively acting in many of his productions.
Those are more than good news for anyone who has ever fallen in love with her stellar performances throughout the years. However, there’s a lot to know about Cassi Davis, so keep reading to discover more about her!
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Who Is Cassi Davis?
Born on 31 July 1964, in Holly Springs, Mississippi, Cassi Davis was raised in a devoted Christian family. She matriculated from high school in 1984, and then moved to Atlanta, where she enrolled at Spelman College to obtain a music degree with a minor in vocal performance.
Despite her career choice, Cassi didn’t want to become a classical singer. As she affirmed in an interview with Essence, her early experience at Spelman was similar to being ‘awakened to the real world’, as she had previously expected to learn how to be a gospel singer, and honor her Christian faith through music. That didn’t turn out as she wanted throughout her career at Spelman, but the last straw for her was finding out that she couldn’t perform a Christian song during her final performance during her senior year.
The clash between her faith and Spelman’s rules didn’t go well with her, leading her to drop out of college while swearing she would go back only if they offered her an honorary degree. That didn’t happen, but guided by her faith and Mississippi mindset of finishing everything she started, Cassi eventually put her past behind her to finally obtain her missing credits, and graduate with a major in music from Spelman College in late 2008.
Early Career
Following her exit from Spelman College in the 1980s, Cassi was on the search for new opportunities in her career while dealing with heavy personal problems. Just as she told CBN, she was ‘out of order’ as she was using drugs and had taken a step back from her faith, and her house had been recently burned out.
Cassi Davis in School Daze, 1988.
& an episode of Living Single, 1994. https://t.co/qS3mtQJoXJ pic.twitter.com/eCqsxrYoSn— Ave (@SebastianAvenue) July 31, 2023
It was in the late 1980s that Cassi’s life-changing opportunity came knocking at her door, when Chip Fields, the mother of the famous actress and director Kim Fields, offered Cassi a role in a local play. At the time, she had already made her film debut as Paula in the 1988 comedy film “School Daze!”, but she kept working for Chip for a couple of years more.
In 1991, Cassi reconnected with her faith again, and packed her belongings to move to Los Angeles, where she played minor roles in series such as “Living Single”, “Chicago Hope” and “Kenan & Kel” for the rest of the decade, on top of appearing in the short film “Silent Bomb” from 1994.
Despite having several minor roles during the 1990s, it wasn’t enough for Cassi at the time. She finished her recurring appearances in “The PJS” when the show ended in 2001, before stepping down from the stage to work as an assistant for Steve Harvey,
Working With Tyler Perry
Only one year after leaving her acting career, Cassi Davis met producer and actor Tyler Perry while hanging out at the National Black Theatre Festival, in North Carolina. They exchanged numbers upon Tyler’s insistence that he wanted her to act in his plays, but Cassi wasn’t very convinced, and continuously rejected his work offers for the next couple of years.
One of Cassi’s friends heard about her situation, and convinced her to accept Tyler’s offer, soon joining Tyler’s cast of the 2006 play “Madea Goes to Jail”, and its follow-up productions such as “Madea’s Family Reunion”. The play continued for some time, and the next big opportunity came with Tyler, who offered her and actor LaVan Davis starring roles in his then-upcoming TV series “House of Payne”, which originally ran from 2007 to 2012. The series was revived in 2020, and has continued airing since then.
Next to her return to TV in the mid-2000s, Cassi has appeared in several productions by Tyler, including the “House Of Payne” spin-offs “Meet The Browns”, “Love Thy Neighbor” and the 2018’s short-lived series “The Paynes”. She also continues acting in Tyler’s plays, and in made-for-TV movies.
Who Is Her Husband?
For many years, fans of “House of Payne” have mistakenly assumed that Cassi Davis is married to her co-star LaVan Davis. Whether these assumptions come from the fact that both actors have the same last name or from their on-screen chemistry, the truth is that Cassi and LaVan are neither romantically involved nor related. Instead, she’s been married for years to Kerry Patton, whom she’d been dating for many years before tying the knot.
Cassi and Terry have known each other from the time they both attended school in Holly Springs, Mississippi. As Cassi affirmed when interviewed by the podcast “The Culture”, she fell in love with Terry during sixth grade, when he would accompany her to her music lessons. They dated throughout high school until their senior year, but broke up for reasons unknown.
As Cassi affirmed, they said ‘very sincere things’ to each other back in their teens, but life took them to different paths for the next couple of decades, during which she found herself comparing her next partners to her past relationship with Terry.
Fast forward to 2007, the pair reconnected again and started dating, evetully tying the knot in 2017, later moving to Alabama, where they happily live nowadays.
Faith & Health
Faith is a big and important part of Cassi Davis, to the point she credits her success to her Christianity. Born and raised by a deeply Christian family, Cassi grew up very loyal to her faith and found her initial musical influences in gospel music.
By the time she reached adulthood and was faced with the challenges of having her career cut short, consuming drugs, and other personal issues, Cassi didn’t feel as in sync with her beliefs as she used to. It was being hired by Chip Fields for playing characters in plays in the late 1980s, which eventually led her path to reconnect with her religion.
Professional issues knocked at the door later on, when her career seemed to stagnate in the early 2000s. In the end, Cassi persisted and found success, affirming that the challenges she found along her path were ‘tests’ to prove her faith in her God.
Regarding her date, in early 2020 Cassi was diagnosed with a type of facial paralysis named Bell’s palsy. Cassi described her condition as similar to a ‘glitch’, shutting down mistaken rumors about having suffered a stroke.
Net Worth, Appearance & Social Media
As a result of her decades-long career in the entertainment world, acting in films, on TV and the stage, sources online have calculated Cassi Davis’ net worth at approximately $6 million, as of late 2023.
Cassi is an Afro-American woman who is 5ft 5ins (1.65m) tall, but her weight is unknown. Besides acting, singing, and her loyal Christian faith, it’s hard to know what other hobbies she has, especially given how her social accounts are inactive, as she prefers to keep herself away from drama and social media, as her friend and fellow actor Tyler Perry wrote on Instagram in 2023. Even Cassi’s old website – cassidavis.com – is nowadays inactive, but it’s safe to assume that she’s doing great these days, much to the joy of her fans.
