Alfonso Ribeiro

Alfonso Ribeiro was born in New York on September 21 1971 Alfonsos family is from Trinidad Tobago Although rumor has been that he is of Dominican descent he has stated in an interview that this is false Neither he nor his family are from the Dominican Republic they originate from Trinidad Tobago Ribeiro began his career when he debuted on the PBS show Oye Ollie After getting the starring role in the Broadway musical The Tap Dance Kid Ribeiro was spotted by Michael Jackson who cast him in one of the singers many Pepsi commercials of that decade At the age of 10 Ribeiro dabbled as a musician releasing singles such as Dance Baby Not Too Young To Fall In Love Sneak Away With Me and Time Bomb It was about this time that he was cast as Ricky Schroders best friend on the longrunning series Silver Spoons 1982 He attended California State University at Los Angeles after the end of the series and was later cast as Carlton Banks on the popular series The Fresh Prince of BelAir 1990 An avid race car driver Ribeiro resides in Los Angeles where he participates in celebrity car races