She Stole Every Scene: A Goodbye to Kimberly Hébert Gregory

On October 3, 2025, Kimberly Hébert Gregory died. She was 52. If you ever saw her work, you’d understand. She had this thing where she would enter a scene and just own it. It didn’t matter whether she had two lines or twenty. You remembered her.

Her ex-husband, Chester Gregory, shared the news on social media. He’s an actor too. What he wrote was beautiful. Called her “brilliance embodied, a Black woman whose mind lit every room.” People who knew her say that’s exactly right.

What Happened

Nobody’s saying how she died. Chester made the announcement on October 3, but he didn’t disclose what the cause of the death was. And no one had previously mentioned any illness.

Families don’t always want to make everything public and it’s fair enough. What matters is we lost her way too early.

Vice Principals Put Her On The Map

HBO’s Vice Principals. That’s where a lot of people know her from. She played Dr Belinda Brown, a principal who was unyielding to both Danny McBride and Walton Goggins. Total scene stealer.

That show debuted in 2016, and it was a big break for her, despite doing theatre for years. Most people don’t understand how much work goes into stage acting before you ever see a person on television. It’s brutal. Eight shows a week, no second takes, everything right there in front of a live audience

Walton Goggins wrote something after she died. You can tell from what he says that she was special to work with.

Better Call Saul

Kyra Hay in Better Call Saul. The part was small but memorable. She did that a lot. She forced you to notice her even when she wasn’t supposed to be the focus.

There are Better Call Saul fans all over Reddit posting clips of her scenes. One person said she “just brought such presence” to everything. Another said that she made even the smallest roles seem significant. Some actors just have it.

Other Stuff You Might’ve Seen Her In

The Chi. Another show where she wasn’t the star but still loomed large. Fans of that show are also pretty upset.

Five Feet Apart, that teen movie about people with cystic fibrosis. She was in it. In Brooklyn Nine-Nine as well, but only for a moment. The same goes for The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men. Big shows.

She’d pop in, do her thing and move on to the next gig. That’s what it’s like when you are a character actor. Never not working, and not always getting credit for it.

Started In Theatre

Before all the TV stuff, she was doing theatre. In 2009, she was in The Brother/Sister Plays by Tarell Alvin McCraney at The Public in New York. Theatre’s no joke. You mess up and there’s no hiding it. Everyone sees it happen.

She was born in Houston on December 7, 1972. Went to The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts there. Houston’s turned out some really good actors over the years. She was one of them.

There’s something different about actors who come from theatre. The way they time things, the way they hold a room. You can spot it if you know what to look for.

Personal Life

Chester Gregory was actually her ex-husband when she passed. They’d separated but clearly still cared deeply about each other. His tribute to her was one of the most beautiful things you’ll read about anyone.

He wrote about her mind, her fire, and her grace. About lessons in courage she taught people. Most divorced couples can barely speak to each other. These two clearly respected what they’d had and who each other was.

The fact that he was the one who announced her passing tells you they maintained a proper relationship despite the divorce.

Craig of the Creek Fans Lost Her Too

She voiced Nicole Williams in Craig of the Creek, the animated series. Voice acting is a whole different skill. You can’t rely on facial expressions or body language. Everything’s in your voice. She nailed that too.

Kids watching that show grew up with her voice. They might not have known her face but they knew Nicole Williams. That’s impact. That’s reaching people across generations and mediums.

What Made Her Different

Kimberly Hébert Gregory wasn’t chasing fame. She was chasing good work. Some actors want to be famous. They’ll take any role that gets them attention. Others want to do meaningful work even if it means staying in the background.

She was the second type. Theatre for years. Character roles on massive shows. Voice work on cartoons. Each job done brilliantly. Each performance memorable. No ego about it. Just solid, consistent work.

Stars get attention automatically. Character actors have to earn it every single time they appear on screen. One bad performance and nobody calls again. She never gave a bad performance.

The Industry Reacts

Social media’s been flooded with tributes from people she worked with. Directors. Co-stars. Crew members. Everyone’s got a story about how professional she was. How kind. How talented.

Plenty of talented people are nightmares to work with. Being both talented and lovely is rarer than you’d think. She managed both.

Gone Too Young

52 is no age. She had decades of work left in her. Roles she’d never get to play. Performances we’ll never see.

The roles she did give us will last, though. Vice Principals isn’t going anywhere. Better Call Saul will be watched for years. The Chi continues. Her work lives on even though she doesn’t.

Actors who die are gone but they’re also still here, frozen in time on screen. Future generations will watch her performances without knowing she’s passed. They’ll just see a brilliant actress doing brilliant work.

And that’s probably the best legacy anyone in this business can hope for. To be remembered for the work. For the talent. For making every role count no matter how big or small.

Rest in peace, Kimberly. The industry’s poorer without you.