Catch a Glimpse of The Mecca: 9 TV Shows and Films that Reference Howard University

“Bel-Air” is a modern, dramatic reimagining of the classic sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” The show, created by Morgan Cooper and executive produced by Will Smith, follows the premise of the original sitcom that depicts Will’s (Jabari Banks) transition from his hometown of Philadelphia to Bel Air after a dangerous incident causes him to seek refuge at his aunt and uncle’s Los Angeles home. The “Bel-Air” series, which ended after four seasons earlier this month, leans into some of the darker, more dramatic moments in Will’s life, demonstrating how he navigates those moments alongside the Banks family that includes his aunt Vivian (Cassandra Freeman), his uncle Phil (Adrian Holmes), and his cousins, Carlton (Olly Sholotan), Hilary (Coco Jones), and Ashley (Akira Akbar).

In the first episode of the final season of “Bel Air” (season 4, episode 1), Will’s girlfriend, Lisa Wilkes (Simone Joy Jones), announced at Bel Air Academy’s student-athlete college decision day event that she was “excited that I am going to be a Bison with a full ride to Howard University.” When she makes the announcement, she opens her letterman jacket to reveal a shirt that displays the university’s name.

The “Bel-Air” cast’s support of Howard goes beyond the university’s mention in the show’s final season. Jabari Banks visited Howard’s campus in 2024 for the “Fresh Perspectives with Jabari Banks” event and shared some words of advice for students interested in pursuing a career in the arts.

“Always stay curious, stay open to every experience, just be a student forever in life,” said Banks. “That’ll take you far, farther than anything else.”

In October, “Bel-Air” castmates Cassandra Freeman, Adrian Holmes, and Olly Sholotan, joined in on the 2025 Homecoming fun, dropping by campus to celebrate Howard’s 101st Homecoming celebration. Sholotan and Holmes were out and about on The Yard during Homecoming 2025 and joined WHUR-FM to discuss their Homecoming fashion fits.

“I’m here at The Mecca and I’m representing the house of Alpha, so I had to wear my letters,” Holmes shared in a video featured on WHUR’s Instagram page. The actor, who’s onscreen character, Phil, is a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, became an Alpha himself in June and said in a post of Facebook that, “My first Howard Homecoming as an Alpha, and man, did it hit different. Such a vibe! The energy. The legacy. The brotherhood. It’s a pride you feel deep in your soul. Walking those historic grounds, surrounded by generations who’ve paved the way, was grounding and deeply inspiring.”

All episodes of “Bel-Air” are available to watch on Peacock.

The Gilded Age

“The Gilded Age” is a historical drama set in 1880s New York City and largely focuses on the clash between old money families and the newly rich industrialists who are building new fortunes and shaping the modern era of the city. The show, created by Julian Fellowes (creator of “Downton Abbey”), explores themes such as class, social climbing, race, and how American society evolved during the Gilded Age, a period in U.S. history marked by rapid industrialization, immense wealth accumulation from businessmen and industrialists, and the extreme poverty of the proletariat groups. The show blends fictional characters with real historical figures and events, with mentions of real-life wealth moguls like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan, and storylines that portray the creation of New York City staples such as the Brooklyn Bridge and the Met Opera House.

The third season of “The Gilded Age” ushered in a new set of characters, including Dr. William Kirkland (Jordan Donica), a handsome Black doctor from a prominent family in Newport, Rhode Island, and Howard alum Phylicia Rashad (B.A. ’70), dean emeritus of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts. Rashad played the role of William’s mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Kirkland, a well-to-do high society woman within New Port’s affluent Black community who favors high social status and old money fortunes.

In several moments throughout season three, Dr. Kirkland makes note of his educational background and training as a former student of Howard’s medical school (the Howard University College of Medicine). He takes part in a pivotal scene where he (spoiler alert!) helps to save the life of a prominent white businessmen, George Russell (Morgan Spector), who suffers a nearly fatal gunshot wound. Following the incident, Russell celebrates Dr. Kirkland’s medical expertise and points to the significance of a Black man saving a white man’s life during that time period. Dr. Kirkland’s character is loosely based on the real life of Howard alum Dr. Marcus F. Wheatland, who received his medical degree from the university in 1895.

“Historically, I found Dr. Wheatland, who was a doctor that came from the Caribbean islands and settled in Newport about four years later than our story takes place,” Jordan Donica said in a Vulture article. “He was educated down at Howard University and came to Newport, Rhode Island, to help build that community out there. He was the first doctor to use the X-ray machine as a diagnostic tool. There are people like Dr. Kirkland who existed in this world.”

All episodes of “The Gilded Age” are available to watch on HBO Max. 

Black-ish

“Black-ish”(2014-2022) was an ABC sitcom that centered on an upper middle class Black American family in Los Angeles. The show, created by Kenya Barris, is led by Andre “Dre” Johnson (Anthony Anderson, B.F.A. ’22) and his wife Rainbow “Bow” Johnson (Tracee Ellis Ross) as they navigate cultural identity, parenting their four children, and sociopolitical issues, all with a touch of humor. The show illuminates how the couple tries to stay true to their Black identities while they live in a wealthy, suburban white neighborhood.

During the fourth season of “Black-ish,” episode 18 (season 4, episode 18), Dre’s son, Junior, gets accepted into Standford University and Dre tries to convince him to attend Howard University instead —where he receives a full scholarship. Dre, who is a Howard alum himself, takes Junior to D.C. to tour the university and his plan of convincing Junior to become a Bison backfires.

During the episode, Dre talks to his boss and coworkers about the significance of Howard and other HBCUs, as well as the many successful Black Americans who attended these institutions, naming Howard alums like Kamala Harris (B.A. ’86) in his roundup of notable figures.

All episodes of “Black-ish” are available to watch on Hulu.

This Is Us

“This Is Us” (2016-2022) was an emotional drama series that follows the lives of the Pearson family across several decades. The show, created by Dan Fogelman, largely focuses on parents Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and their “Big Three” children: Kevin (Justin Hartley), Kate (Chrissy Metz), and Randall (Sterling K. Brown). Kevin and Kate are twins whose triplet sibling died at birth, and Randall is their Black adopted brother who was born on the same day as the twins. The show weaves together past and present timelines and explores love, loss, identity, and pivotal moments that shape the adults the “Big Three” grow up to be. The show also features Howard alum Susan Kelechi Watson (B.F.A. ’95) who plays Randall’s wife, Beth (Phylicia Rashad, who taught Watson at Howard, played her mother, Carol Clarke, in the series.)

In episode 10 of the second season of “This Is Us” (season 2, episode 10), the show flashes back to the younger years of Randall when he’s deciding which college to attend. In one scene during the episode, young Randall (Niles Fitch) is looking through college brochures and filling out applications. He looks through a Howard University brochure and then asks his father if they could visit the university. The pair end up touring Howard’s campus where they walk through sites such as The Yard. The university’s campus and its buildings, including the halls of Founders Library, act as the backdrop of Randall’s tour with his friend, Keith, a freshman at Howard who inspired him to attend the HBCU, and other Bison he encounter throughout his visit.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2017, “This Is Us” executive producer Isaac Aptaker said: “It was so important to us that we filmed the episode at Howard because we really wanted to capture the visual storytelling of seeing Jack surrounded by people who are a different race than him, which is an experience that Randall [lived] probably 95 percent of life in, from childhood. So, for Jack, he really is able to understand for the first time in a more visceral level — of course, it’s different but with the race flipped — what it feels like just to not look like everyone around you.”

All episodes of “This Is Us” are available to watch on Hulu, Disney+, and Tubi. 

The Golden Year: Howard Women’s Basketball

This 30-minute documentary chronicles the story of Howard’s women’s basketball program, which was established in 1974. “The Golden Year: Howard Women’s Basketball,” is produced by WHUT-TV, Howard University Television, and was executive produced by Angela “Angie Ange” Hailstorks (B.A. ’06), WHUT’s director of content. WHUT, founded in 1980, is the country’s only PBS station licensed and operated by an HBCU.

“The Golden Year” celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Howard women’s basketball program, highlighting its rich history and trailblazing legacy, while showcasing how the team evolved from club status to a dominant force with multiple Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) titles. The documentary features interviews from former players and coaches, such as the legendary coach Sanya Tyler who led the Lady Bison to five MEAC regular-season titles, nine MEAC tournament titles, and eclipsed nearly 300 victories.

“The Golden Year: Howard Women’s Basketball” is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS app.

Between the World and Me

Howard’s campus and history is prominently featured in HBO’s 2020 film adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ best-selling 2015 book “Between the World and Me.” The book is written in the epistolary form as a letter Coates pens to his then-teenage son about his perception of what the feelings, symbolism, and realities associated with being Black in America are.

In the film, during the “Meeting The Mecca” section, Howard School of Fine Arts alum Susan Kelechi Watson recites Coates’ words describing his time as a Howard student and how the university helped to shaped Black culture and Black political thought throughout history. Coates attended Howard as an undergraduate from 1993-99, where he majored in history. In these scenes, audience members see Watson walking through The Yard, with shots of Howard’s infamous clock tower and various buildings on campus, as well as archival footage of students, notable alums, and other key figures and moments in Howard history.

“Between the World and Me” also tells the story of Coates meeting a fellow Howard classmate who would be become his wife, and the recounting of the killing of Coates’ Howard classmate, Prince Carmen Jones, by a police officer from Prince George’s County. Coates has previously shared that this incident was the impetus for his writing the book.

“Between the World and Me” is available to watch on HBO Max.

Dangerous Acts

In season one, episode one of “Dangerous Acts,” dean emeritus Phylicia Rashad directed Howard students in stage readings of the plays “The Deacon’s Awakening” and “Aftermath.” The broadcast, directed by Rashad, explores the works of Black playwrights Mary Burrill and Willis Richardson. Burrill’s “Aftermath” is a play about a Black World War I hero who confronts racial oppression after returning home to the American South and discovering his father has been lynched. Richardson’s “The Deacon’s Awakening” examined sexism and patriarchy in the first half of the twentieth century. The episode also features a discussion between Rashad and Dr. Greg Carr, an associate Professor of Africana Studies, Chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies, and an adjunct faculty member at the Howard School of Law. The conversation breaks down Howard’s connection to Black theatre and the university’s historic theatre legacy.

“Dangerous Acts” was a collaboration between the Lucille Lortel Theatre and HBCUs around the country as a celebration of Black playwrights from the early 20th century. “Dangerous Acts: Howard University” won a New York Emmy Award in the Arts/Entertainment – Long-Form Content category in 2024.

“Dangerous Acts: Howard University” is available to watch on YouTube and available to stream on pbs.org and on the free PBS app.

Honorable Mention

Us

There’s a cadre of tv shows and films, namely those led by Black actors, that showcase Howard through its wardrobe selections. One such honorable mention that gives a nod to Howard includes filmmaker Jordan Peele’s 2019 horror movie “Us.” Actor Winston Duke, who stars in the film as Gabe, wears a grey sweatshirt throughout the film with “Howard” emblazoned across it.

“Us” is set in the present day along the Northern California coastline. It stars Lupita Nyong’o as Adelaide, a woman returning to her beachside childhood home with her husband, Gabe (Winston Duke), and their two children (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex) for an idyllic summer getaway. Adelaide is haunted by an unexplainable and unresolved trauma from her past, compounded by a string of eerie coincidences. She grows increasingly certain that something bad is going to befall her family. And then it does.

During a private screening of “Us” held on Howard’s campus in 2019, Peele, addressing student questions after the screening, said he uses symbolism in movies to disrupt conventional images of African Americans.

“It starts breaking down the boxes we are relegated to,” Peele told students. “Howard is dope. Howard is iconic. It’s one of these things that pops and represents on film.”