Iconic ’90s Sitcom Star Arrested Over Awful Reason

TMZ (as per The Daily Beast) reported that Darius McCrary was taken into custody for a second time for allegedly not paying his child support payments to his ex-wife Tammy Brawner.

McCrary was arrested at the tail end of November and has since entered a plea of not guilty, though Brawner claims that he owes her thousands of dollars already.

Tammy Brawner and Darius McCrary have two daughters and one son together. After Brawner claimed that her ex wasn’t paying her child support for four years, she divorced him in 2019.

The first time he was brought into the courtroom for such an allegation was in 2015 and, according to Brawner, the money has only continued to pile up since then.

It’s worth noting, however, that the Family Matters star handed over $5,500 during the initial investigation in 2015.

Still, things aren’t looking great for Darius McCrary as, in 2019, a batch of court documents revealed that he owed somewhere north of $52,000 to his ex-partner.

Then, in 2021, McCrary and his legal representation stated that the actor had only earned $500 over the year, which he could hardly keep himself alive with. 

With the numbers quickly multiplying month after month, it’s hard to imagine just how much cash Darius McCrary owes his ex-spouse and their children.

The terms of their divorce agreement state that McCrary is to pay $1,366 per month, which, when taken into account how long he allegedly hasn’t been paying, is likely to be a staggering debt now.

Still behind bars from his late November arrest, McCrary’s bond was set at $13,197.01 with the condition that he would need to wear a GPS tracking device should he be sent home. 

Darius McCrary has somewhat of a backwards Hollywood story. He started out appearing alongside huge names like Robert De Niro and Whoopi Goldberg, before backsliding into soap operas in the more recent years.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with starring in a daytime drama, it’s just that – typically speaking – many up-and-coming actors get their start here before moving on to more widely recognized work. 

First appearing in Robert Mandel’s (School Ties) comedy, Big Shots, Darius McCrary began his occupation of acting at a very young age. Though he held a handful of roles during his pre-teen years, McCrary’s big break would come in the 9-season-running ABC/CBS sitcom, Family Matters.

There, he appeared as Eddie Winslow, the child of Carl (Reginald VelJohnson) and Harriette Winslow (Jo Marie Payton) and the “cool” guy to Jaleel White’s nerdy Steve Urkel. 

When Family Matters ended at the turn of the millennium, Darius McCrary dipped back into film, appearing alongside Robert De Niro in 2001’s 15 Minutes and Whoopi Goldberg in Kingdom Come.

Transformers fans may also recognize the actor’s voice as Jazz in the 2007 feature, Transformers.

Right now, Darius McCrary has a Tubi series titled Sebastian as the main project on his docket. Hopefully, the title will earn him enough money to begin paying his ex-wife back in lapsed child support money.