Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Star’s Life Is Imitating Her Hit Show After She Opens Her Home to Struggling Young Filmmaker (Exclusive)

Many people still remember the popular 1990s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, in which Will Smith played a street-smart teenager from West Philadelphia who was sent to live with his wealthy relatives in a tony Los Angeles neighborhood.

One of those relatives, cousin Hilary, was played by Karyn Parsons over the show’s six seasons.

And while Parsons, 59, has been out of the Hollywood limelight for many years — she is now known as an author, public speaker and founder of a nonprofit — she’s found herself in an unexpected situation: Her life is imitating the series that helped make her famous.

Since last year, Parsons and her husband, film director, producer and screenwriter Alexandre Rockwell, have opened their stately home in Providence, R.I., to an aspiring filmmaker who Rockwell had been mentoring before the young man, Matthew Osubor, found himself in need of a place to live.

“It was difficult for him to focus on working on his film because … there were all kinds of issues in the house, like flooding,” Parsons says.

“We had a water boiler burst in the basement at 8:30 on a Sunday morning. Then we were told we couldn’t use the water,” Osubor, 27, recalls. 

“Things were always breaking, the electricity would trip out, people were coming and going,” he says.

Initially, Parsons and Rockwell had offered to let Osubor — who has been working on Rockwell’s projects — take breaks in their home as needed, given his plumbing problems. 

But when they realized the extent of his tenuous living situation, they made a more generous offer.

The bond between Osubor, a Brown University graduate whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from Nigeria before he was born, and the couple, who have lived in Providence for three years, began by chance in a Whole Foods parking lot in the spring of 2024.

That’s when Osubor noticed an orange fall out of Rockwell’s shopping bag as Rockwell headed toward his car in the parking lot. Osubor picked it up and handed it to him, and the two struck up a conversation.

“As soon as he told me who he was, I was like, ‘Woah!’ ” says Osubor. A recipient of top honors at major film festivals, including at Sundance and Berlin, Rockwell was until recently the head of the directing program at New York University’s graduate film school.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.  

Osubor told Rockwell he was an aspiring filmmaker himself and Rockwell shared his email to keep in touch. The two began corresponding and soon Osubor was working on Rockwell’s latest film, The Projectionist (starring Chicago Hope’s Vondie Curtis-Hall and executive produced by Quentin Tarantino).

Rockwell also agreed to serve as executive producer on Osubor’s most recent film, Big Daddy’s Flowers, which was shot in and around Providence and will be released early this year.

Osubor says the icing on the cake, so to speak, was that Parsons agreed to be in his movie. Since he didn’t have much of a budget, the Hamilton, Ohio, native offered his multimedia skills to help Parsons with her nonprofit, Sweet Blackberry — which shares with parents and educators little-known stories of African-Americans whose achievements have shaped American history — in lieu of payment.

“He’s been a huge help with the website and helping to launch our YouTube channel,” Parsons says of Osubor, whose “energy, enthusiasm and ambition” were apparent from the first time they met, she says.

Rockwell, too, says he has been “so impressed” by Osubor’s drive and talent.

“When I first saw his short films, they jumped out at me and I [thought], ‘This guy’s got something I haven’t seen exactly before,’ ” Rockwell says. “And as someone who has dealt with a lot of young filmmakers … seeing someone who has a unique voice or a way of seeing something I haven’t seen before is rare, so he really stood out that way.”

“He’s also a good collaborator,” Rockwell adds. “That’s another thing about filmmakers: You have to know how to collaborate and work with people.”

At home — Osubor lives in the family’s finished attic — Parsons says he “fits in great” with the family and has become “like a big brother” to her and Rockwell’s son, Nico, 18, a high school senior who is interested in filmmaking and worked on Osubor’s film. (The couple also share a daughter, Lana, 22, an actor and musician who lives in Paris and in New York City.)

Osubor says he is “beyond grateful” to Parsons and Rockwell for their generosity and is in “awe” of their commitment to their professional pursuits while still carving out time to have fun.

“There’s a lot of laughter in this house, for sure,” he says.

“They are both so inspiring, and seeing how fearless they are gives me comfort and a kind of peace and tranquility with how I go about things,” he says. “They’re both passionate about what they do – and I see in them, on a daily basis, that anything is possible.”