Blasts from the Past

As the youngest Huxtable kid, Rudy, Keisha Knight Pulliam literally grew up on set and says that Bill was not only her boss, but also was like a father to her. "I definitely think he was the best combination of all of those," Keisha says. "He was definitely a father figure in that he led by example." As a boss, Bill set the standard for Keisha. "It was so wonderful for my first major experience to be so perfect in terms of he taught us so much about professionalism," she says. "You know, about the craft."

While the social significance of The Cosby Show is often talked about, Keisha says it wasn't until she went to Spelman College that she truly began to understand the importance of her days playing Rudy. "I was a sociology major with a concentration in film, and I'm sitting in a sociology class, and we're discussing us—The Cosby Show—and they're looking at me like the authority on the situation," she says. When Keisha saw the show in a textbook, she says she was shocked. "I'm, like, are you serious? This is crazy! I guess it really, really hit me, the magnitude, how deep it was, at that point."

When she's not acting on the sitcom Tyler Perry's House of Payne, Keisha says she's busy with plans to start her own acting studio in Atlanta.