Wayne Brady's nontraditional family takes center stage in new reality show

Wayne Brady talks to NBC News about his new reality show, "Wayne Brady: The Family Remix," his blended family and his decision to come out as pansexual.

Actor Wayne Brady knows his family unit is unlike any other on television. His blended family includes his ex-wife, best friend and business partner, Mandie Taketa; their 21-year-old daughter, Maile Brady; Taketa’s life partner, Jason Michael Fordham, who was also one of Brady’s former backup dancers; and Taketa and Fordham’s young, adopted son, Sundance-Isamu.

Brady and his loved ones will take center stage in “Wayne Brady: The Family Remix,” a new reality series that premieres Wednesday on Freeform. The eight-episode first season finds Brady at a crossroads in his personal and professional lives and offers an intimate look at the dynamics of his tight-knit inner circle, culminating in his decision to come out publicly as pansexual in a lighthearted TikTok and an interview with People last August.

Brady’s blended family first attracted widespread attention during the Covid-19 pandemic, when they would often perform TikTok dances together. While their posts would elicit all kinds of online reactions — some questioned the likelihood that two exes would stay best friends, let alone quarantine together with one of their current partners, while others became fascinated with the adults’ co-parenting relationship — Brady and Taketa both insisted that this configuration has long become the norm in their family.

“Growing up in Hawaii, it’s very community-based, family-based, so it’s not weird to me to love people that love you back and that care for you and keep you safe,” Taketa told NBC News. “This dynamic was not weird to me until other people started telling me that it was weird, like at parent-teacher conferences. It’s what feels good.”

Brady added: “It wasn’t until I met Mandie and her family and started calling her dad, Ron, dad that I realized that I truly didn’t know what it meant to be loved and accepted for who you are. I never knew what that felt like, because I wasn’t from a big family. So what’s normal to me is the family that you choose.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-pop-culture/wayne-brady-family-remix-reality-show-rcna163181

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