Wayne Brady knows his blended family is unique. When he pitched their story to television studios, he was determined not to sacrifice authenticity for ratings. He realized the only way to truly show who they are and the love they share was to do it as a reality show.
In Wayne Brady: The Family Remixpremiering July 24 on Freeform, the actor and host of Let’s make a deal found a way to present his modern family, known as the “core four,” on their own terms.
“We can’t win by being anyone else. We can only win by being ourselves,” Brady told Yahoo Entertainment. “If we do our show like any other show, we lose immediately. We are not those people, those are not our lives. We have a very specific type of existence.”
The core of the four consists of Brady, his ex-wife and best friend Mandie Taketa, with whom he co-parents their 21-year-old daughter Maile Brady, and Jason Fordham, Taketa’s life partner since 2009 and with whom she has a 2-year-old son Sundance-Isamu.
Each member of the core four plays a key role in the family’s production company, A Wayne & Mandie Creative. Viewers will see their quirky sense of humor against the backdrop of a unique blended family that has overcome its share of challenges.
In August 2023, Brady publicly came out as pansexual — an attraction to anyone, regardless of gender identity or expression. He said his family has been among his biggest supporters.
“Talking to my family was probably the least stressful part,” he said of the experience. “Growing up in the religious home that I had, there was so much shame around having thoughts that weren’t considered normal. So when I came out to the person that I love, Mandie, I felt weird and ashamed. But then I got over it because she didn’t shame me.”
Brady’s daughter remembers the day she found out her father identified as pansexual, having heard her parents talk about it when she wasn’t there.
“It wasn’t even a big deal when I found out,” Maile said. Having an open dialogue about the topic was a healing experience for everyone involved, she explained.
“Discussing things instead of working around them is the best thing anyone can do for themselves,” she said. “People need to confront their feelings with the people they love — to fight for something, instead of fighting against each other.”
“Our lives are far more exciting than anything a writer could create”
Taketa said she wanted the show to be an example of how families can thrive through the ups and downs of divorce, coming out, loss and new love. Instead of focusing on past trauma and regrets, she wanted to show how families emerge from those challenges stronger than ever.
“Jason being jealous of Wayne was so 10 years ago,” she told Yahoo Entertainment. “We’re not there anymore, and we’re not going to play that.”
Fordham added that their family dynamic is the most important aspect of the show. “Wayne comes over twice a day. He basically lives in the house,” he said. “We’re intertwined in each other’s lives in the healthiest way possible, to support each other.”
The family had previously tried to tell their story on television.
Brady said his family had several sitcom deals in the works at one point, which would have turned their story into a scripted series. Unfortunately, he said, none of those pilots portrayed them authentically.
“The sitcom stories weren’t good and they weren’t representing this mixed family of color in the right way,” Brady explained. “It was through the filter of, quite frankly, a white writer.”
Some scripts, he said, depicted Mandie as Korean and spoke with a heavy accent. In reality, she is Japanese and white, and was born in Hawaii.
“When we were talking to these writers, we thought, ‘Why not just use what happened to us?'” Taketa said. “Our lives are much more exciting than anything a writer can create.”
Fordham recalls a writer who told them a “Control your enthusiasm-type” program, inspired by his family background.
“I understand you have to make things entertaining and marketable and all that stuff,” he said. “But at the end of the day, no one can write our voices. As long as we show up together, that’s really all the show needs.”
“There was no respect,” Brady said of those pilot scripts. “Maile was black, Asian, white, Jason was biracial, none of that was really seen and respected. So we said, ‘Never mind, let’s do a reality show so we can do it our way.'”
Taketa said the show is ultimately a testament to how far her family has come, and the strength they’ve found in their unity and acceptance of one another, and she hopes it can be a beacon of light for others.
“You have to be someone’s safe place,” she said. “If you’re trying to make a family work and someone doesn’t accept you, go find another family. That’s not a family.”
Wayne Brady: The Family Remix premieres July 24 at 10pm ET on Freeform, with the next one streaming on Hulu.
