Natalie Daise in 2025 (left) and 1994 (right).Photo:tiktok; paramount+
tiktok; paramount+
Bright sunny weather is bringing back memories ofGullah Gullah Island.
Natalie Daise, who starred on the beloved Nickelodeon children’s show that aired from 1994 to 1998, has joined TikTok. Daise decided to start sharing the story of how the show came to be on TikTok last week, uploading one or two videos a day.
“Gullah Gullah Islandwas indeed a show based around our lives in our real lives and community, and our real family life. But Crescent Productions created and producedGullah Gullah Island. I’m going to tell you the story of how it started,” she says.
Daise explains she grew up in Syracuse, N.Y., and moved to Beaufort, S.C., as a young woman after a “violent interaction that involved my person and was very scary.” There, she moved in with her grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousins.
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It was shortly after moving that Daise met Ron through her cousin.
“My cousin Marvin was a musician. He sang, he wrote music. And he said to me, within a few weeks of my arrival, that he was singing at church with this guy and this guy had a great voice that I needed to come and hear this guy sing,” she recalls.
As she got to know Ron, she joined the music group, making them a trio called Encouragement, who sang contemporary Christian music. Later, her cousin would drop out. Shortly after Daise and Ron became a couple, they became a musical duo.
The two went on to get married in 1985 and later welcomed daughter Sara and son Simeon. It was while she was pregnant with Simeon that Daise and Ron would meet some of the people who would put them on the path toGullah Gullah Island.
‘Gullah Gullah Island’ opening credits in 1994.paramount+
paramount+
“We eventually quit our jobs and began to travel around the country, singing old songs and telling stories of the Gullah Geechee community, but we called it, at that time, the Sea Island community,” she explains.
From there, she met Gloria Naylor, whose book,Mama Daywas being made into a movie. When she arrived in South Carolina, it was with the film’s producer, Maria Perez, and the director,Laurence Fishburne. The Daises met them and as they chatted, children’s television came up.
They didn’t expect much from the conversation until Perez started to get things in order to make the show a reality.
“Gullah Gullah Island” in 1994.paramount+
They were preparing to shoot the pilot when Daise started noticing differences in her daughter, Sara.
When she came home from daycare with a rash, the mom’s concern grew. Doctors assured her it was eczema, but the falls continued also. After consulting a number of pediatricians, Daise learned Sara has dermatomyositis, an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks healthy skin and muscle.
“Gullah Gullah Island” live event in the 1990s.BRUCE BISPING/Star Tribune via Getty
BRUCE BISPING/Star Tribune via Getty
“The day after we got the diagnosis was the day we were to drive down to Orlando to shoot the pilot for the show. It was very shortly before we told the producers what was going on, and we didn’t know if she was going to survive this. The guilt I felt … I don’t know if I can explain to you how I felt.”
After the pilot, it was determined Sara wouldn’t be able to play the couple’s daughter on the show. Shaina Freeman was hired instead.
“Suffice to say that my daughter went into remissions within a year and we were very, very grateful,” Daise says.
In other moments of real life brought to screen, members of the community shown in the series were members of the Daises' real-life Beaufort community.
“Mr. Bradley was really a shipman. My husband really grew up next door to him … Miss City was actually the midwife who delivered Simeon … My girlfriend who sold Mary Kay was the makeup artist … Anytime you saw a van, it was our van. As a matter of fact, the very first publicity photo was taken on our back porch,” she says.
“Ranger Mike was really the park naturalist at Hunting Island State Park. They called them naturalists before the show. We called them rangers and what was fun is that the whole state park system changed their titles from naturalists to rangers,” Daise reveals.
‘Gullah Gullah Island’ in the 1990s.paramount+
“Gullah Gullah Islandwas a magical island. It could have a frog with origins in Puerto Rico, because it’s all part of the diaspora, the African diaspora that influenced many of these cultures,” Daise shares.
The signature voice was the work of actor Philip Garcia and his speech-pathologist wife. “That way of talking on an in-drawn breath was a technique they used sometimes for people with particular diagnoses, so he simply developed it,” Daise says.
Philip played the character until his untimely death in a car accident at the end of the show’s third season.
Natalie and Simeon on “Gullah Gullah Island”.paramount+
“My son Simeon grew up on set and to him, Binyah Binyah was real,” Daise says. “I remember once, he went into the dressing room, Philip’s dressing room, but he had taken the head and put it on a stand. As soon as [Simeon] walked in and saw it, [he was shocked.]”
Philip and Simeon became friends after that, and Daise had to make sure that Justin Campbell, who took over the role, could maintain that relationship.
“I remember talking to him and saying, ‘Justin, I need you to understand that Binyah Binyah is Simeon’s friend and so he’s going to expect Binyah Binyah would still be his friend.’ Justin just — as Binyah Binyah and as Justin — he was his friend, absolutely. And I love him for that.”
In her TikToks, Daise is sure to acknowledge other members of the cast as well.
Of Vanessa Baden, who played Vanessa, Daise says, “Vanessa, who was not initially hired as a permanent cast member but was so amazing and so great that she became our niece Vanessa.”
source: people.com