Emmy-winning actor, comedian, and host of the 35th GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles, Wayne Brady is flipping the phrase “modern family” on its head in the new Freeform series Wayne Brady: The Family Remix alongside his ex-wife and business partner, Mandie Taketa, their 21-year-old daughter Maile Brady, as well as Taketa’s life partner Jason Michael Fordham.
With Brady entering a new era in his life Wayne Brady: The Family Remix offers an intimate look into his blended family’s personal life, revealing unexpected points of view and values that most people — including his own family — have a hard time understanding.
Brady, who also hosted GLAAD’s Spirit Day concert in 2023, has been public about being pansexual and naturally, he was met with pushback. “The response has been wonderful — so much love and so much support,” Brady told GLAAD’s Anthony Allen Ramos in a recent interview with the family. “Of course, there are trolls and people are gonna feel the way that they do and that’s great… but the best thin is my life has only changed internally… it’s been beautiful in its normalcy. That’s what I’ll say is the best part.”
As his soulmate and business partner, Taketa and Brady run their production company A Wayne & Mandie Creative. They co-parent 21-year-o Maile Brady, who is also an aspiring artist. With family cinematographer, Fordham they together make what they dub “The Core Four”. Taketa, who moved to L.A. with Brady after dating only a short amount of time is used to living life with her soulmate unconventionally. She talked about doing the show and sharing their experience as a blended family.
“It was like literally jumping off the cliff,” she said of her early relationship with Brady. For the show, she said they made a commitment to themselves and as producers to being “real and transparent”.
“That’s important as producers because the audience is so smart — they see right through the bullshit,” she pointed out. “So [the] scary part is saying things that are vulnerable [and that are real and cringy… because that’s real.”
Maile said it has been a joy to see her dad live his life authentically. “The queer community has welcomed him with such open arms and has always welcomed him with such open arms for as long as I can remember,” she said. “So much of our family, my godparents are all part of the LGBTQIA community and so I think that was just really beautiful to see and a really good opportunity to be the best ally I could be to my parents.”
Fordham and Taketa also have a son, Sundance-Isamu, who is nearly 3 years old. He hopes that The Family Remix shows that they are an active family and are the best versions of themselves for each other. “I hope that’s sort of the takeaway [from the show] — that you can choose your family and then really strive to make that work.”
“This is my squad, and it’s to some people, it is unconventional,” said Brady. “So you need to know when you walk into this — you — it’s not just me — you are walking into this and not everybody’s built for that.”
Wayne Brady: The Family Remix debuts on Freeform on July 24, at 10 PM EDT and drops the next day on Hulu.