Malcolm-Jamal Warner — American Actor born on August 18, 1970,

Malcolm-Jamal Warner is an American actor, director, and musician. He is best known for his roles as Theo Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show and as Malcolm McGee on the UPN sitcom Malcolm & Eddie. He also starred as Dr. Alex Reed in the sitcom Reed Between the Lines... (wikipedia)

Mr. Cosby wanted to do a show not about an upper-middle-class black family, but an upper-middle-class family that happened to be black. Though it sounds like semantics, they're very different approaches.
I never wanted to be one of those 'Where are they now?' kids.
I never wanted to look back on my career and be embarrassed about work that I chose to do. I never wanted to look at character I've done and cringe.
I planned so well for my post-'Cosby Show' life that I don't have to make desperate acting choices that conflict with what my values.
A lot of times what happens is, not even just with child actors, but people in general, is they get so caught up in the now. The hot song, the hot TV show, the hot movie. You're not saying 'OK, this is cool, but where am I trying to be 20 years from now?' That's always been in the forefront of my mind.