Then And Now: Marques Houston Details How A Sitcom Past Led To His Tubi Takeover

“I mean, if you ain’t doing it for Lil’ Saint, are you really doing it? You know what I’m saying?,” Marques Houston quips when reflecting on his stacked TV/film résumé. For VIBE’s Then And Now, the singer-actor looks back on the highlights from his storied past and details how he went from a quirky, next-door neighbor on a hit sitcom to dominating a streaming platform with his own production company.

The child star made his formal on-screen debut in 1993 as Eli Black on A Different World. The following year, he became a household name as Roger Evans on the hit sitcom, Sister Sister, starring alongside Tia Mowry, Tamera Mowry-Housley, Jackée Harry, and Tim Reid, for the show’s first five seasons.

“Go home, Roger,” he joked, mimicking his infamous catchphrase. Houston knows that the tagline “still travels with me for the rest of my life,” but he embraces that level of immortality. “It’s always going to be wherever I go, someone’s going to yell out, ‘Go home, Roger.’ And I don’t mind because it was such a big part of culture and a big part of history. That show was so huge and I don’t take away from doing it. I would do it all over again if I could. Loved being on the show. Loved the girls, Tim, and Jackée. It was the dopest experience for me, but I think I left at the right time,” he explained.

SISTER, SISTER, Tia Mowry, Tim Reid, Marques Houston, Jackee Harry, Tamera Mowry, 1994. ©Paramount Television/Courtesy Everett Collection.

Houston confessed, “Being Roger was so exciting in the beginning.” He was just 12 years old when he got the role on the heels of his group, Immature, gaining success with ‘Never Lie’— the lead single from their sophomore album, Playtyme is Over. The record went on to become their biggest hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 5 in 1994.

“I was really excited about [the success]. It was real dope. It was like everything I’d always wanted,” Houston explaining, admitting that he wanted his own version of Steve Urkel. He described the Family Matters persona as “the scene stealer character that comes in and is the main character that everybody loves.”

However, as he got older, Houston felt he’d become typecasted if he continued. “I felt like I could only do that and I didn’t want that. So, I ended up leaving the show because career-wise I felt like it was the smartest thing for me […] I think it was the best career choice for me definitely. I think it allowed me to move on to other things. I think if I would’ve stayed being Roger, I would’ve probably just been that.”

Following his tenure, Houston starred in House Party 4: Down To The Last Minute, Fat Albert, and of course, You Got Served.

Ironically, Houston wasn’t even supposed to star in the dance film alongside B2K. The film was originally titled Dance and was supposed to star Ginuwine, Aaliyah, Wade Robson, and Dave Scott. “That’s why my name was Elgin because Ginuwine’s real name is Elgin,” Houston explained. When it was time for the film to be made, Sony Pictures got involved and then it came down the line from B2K to Chris Stokes to Houston.

YOU GOT SERVED, Omari Grandberry, Marques Houston, 2004, (c) Screen Gems/courtesy Everett Collection

The Naked crooner applauded the film’s legacy and impact on the cultural zeitgeist. “I think it’s beautiful, the fact that it’s been 20 plus years or however long, but just to be able to still be relevant and people still love ‘You Got Served ‘ and know to what [it] did for the culture, what it did for dance, the dance community, all the TV shows [and] movies that have come out after that, just everything. To be a part of something that’s so big like that that’s changed history, it’s always a blessing to be able to be a part of something like that,” he gushed.

Following that moment, Houston landed his own sitcom with Cuts— the spinoff to One On One, starring Kyla Pratt and Flex Alexander. Funny enough, the singer didn’t think he’d return to TV. “Growing up watching Will Smith, Jamie Foxx be able to do music and television and movies at the same time, once you get that hit movie, you kind of just stick with [movies]. So I remember telling my whole team, ‘I just want to stick to movies,’” he explained. After You Got Served, Houston said he was flooded with other movie offers and wanted to focus on those, but due to his relationship with Alexander, he took a meeting with the show’s executives and even though Ray J was also up for the role, Houston ended up as the lead.

Cuts lasted for two seasons.

CUTS, Omarion Grandberry, Rashaan Nall, Marques Houston, Grapevine (aka Edward Fordham Jr.), ‘Reverse The Curse’, (Season 2, aired November 3, 2005), 2005-, photo: Monty Brinton / © UPN / Courtesy: Everett Collection

For Houston, “‘Cuts’ was dope [and] hilarious. I loved ‘Cuts’ because it gave me an opportunity to be a comedian and be funny as an adult. A lot of people were used to me being funny and stuff on ‘Sister, Sister,’ but I was a kid. With ‘Cuts,’ it gave me the opportunity for people to see me as an adult being able to handle comedy and be funny. That was a great experience for me too.”

It got to a point, though, where Houston was experiencing two things: he felt seasoned enough to not have to audition for certain roles, but he, in turn, wasn’t fitting the roles being presented to him. This led to the creation of Footage Films with Chris Stokes.

“We were just like, ‘Let’s just do it ourselves.’ I’m like, ‘I have enough experience with writing. I have enough experience with acting; you have enough experience with directing and writing. Let’s just start our own production company and just kind of go from there,’” Houston recalled of the distribution/production company’s inception.

He credited Cathy Hughes (founder of Radio One, which owns Urban One and TV One) as the catalyst behind the first Footage Films production titled Will To Love. Stokes and Houston “called in [several] favors” and the film wound up a success. Timing was on their side with BET launching their film division, so Houston and Stokes began working on projects with the network and continued to evolve.

Since then, he and Stokes have continued to call in favors from Karrueche, Erica Mena, and more to star in their films. From Only For One Night, which became one of their top rated movies, to debuting their first TV series, Sacrifice, on BET+, the men quickly realized they were “onto something with thrillers.”

That success led to them helping to “break Tubi.” Despite not finding initial success in their debut, Howard High, the Stepmother franchise became their launchpad and as Houston puts it, “Just put Tubi on the map.”

Overall, Houston is “grateful” to be able to “be successful for something that you love and that you’re passionate about.” The latest Footage Film successes are Adopted 2 and Run. He stars in the latter. Both of which are Tubi Originals.

Check out the crooner’s full Then And Now breakdown above.