Cornell Young IV Stuns in Striking New Press Photos for ‘A Different World’
Cornell Young IV has quickly become one of the breakout faces of Netflix’s revival of a beloved sitcom, but his path to Hillman College started far from any acting stage. Long before landing the role of Shaquille Johnson, the 26-year-old actor was carving out an identity as a competitive high school and college football player in Missouri.
That athletic background has turned out to be far more relevant to his current success than he might have expected. Young, born and raised in St. Louis, played running back, wide receiver and cornerback at Kirkwood High School, helping lead the team to a Missouri Class 6A State Championship before continuing his football career at the collegiate level.
Now, as ‘A Different World‘ rolls out its press tour ahead of the show’s September 24 premiere, Young has been opening up about how that same athletic-to-artistic balancing act shaped his path toward playing Shaquille, Hillman’s star quarterback and the son of original series character Ron Johnson.
Speaking with Netflix’s Tudum, Young described discovering theater almost by accident while playing football and studying marketing in college. “But with my marketing courses I was like, ‘It’s boring, I need something to balance,'” he said, explaining how he eventually found his way into performing.
That balancing act quickly became something of a personal trademark for Young, who drew a direct comparison to one of pop culture’s most famous fictional athletes. “I was real-life Troy Bolton,” Young said, referencing the ‘High School Musical’ character famously torn between basketball and singing. “How Troy would leave basketball practice and go to rehearsal? I was doing that. I had my football buddies pull up to my plays. They were sitting in the front row trying to make me laugh.”
That lived experience gave Young an immediate connection to Shaquille’s own storyline once he read the audition material for ‘A Different World.’ The character grapples with the pressure of living up to his father’s legacy while balancing his athletic future, a tension Young has described as instantly familiar given his own background.
Speaking separately with Teen Vogue, Young addressed how that pressure plays out for his character throughout the season. “We see, at times, how that can have a hold on him,” he said, describing the emotional toll that expectation takes on Shaquille as the series unfolds.
Young’s road to Hillman wasn’t entirely unexpected given his recent trajectory. Before joining ‘A Different World,’ he appeared in the Netflix YA romance ‘Forever,’ giving him a foothold in the streamer’s ecosystem ahead of his breakout role. He’s also set to appear in Tyler Perry’s ‘Doing Life,’ another Netflix project arriving after ‘A Different World’s’ first season.
That growing résumé, paired with his personal connection to the show’s central themes around ambition and expectation, has made Young one of the more talked-about new additions to the franchise’s revival. With four sisters and what he’s described to Netflix as a “beautiful upbringing” in St. Louis, Young has framed his own family background as another point of overlap with Shaquille’s story, even as the character’s specific pressures differ from his own experience.
The new era of Hillman begins.
— Netflix (@netflix) August 17, 2026
A Different World premieres SEPTEMBER 24! pic.twitter.com/qtD0YBYISf
As ‘A Different World’ continues generating buzz following its Netflix debut, Young’s press tour has increasingly positioned him as one of the season’s standout new performers, particularly given how directly his own athletic-artistic duality informed his understanding of the role.
What stands out most about Cornell Young IV’s journey to A Different World?
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