Malik Yoba is not currently married. The actor best known for playing Detective J.C. Williams on New York Undercover has been married twice: first to actress and model Trisha Mann, and then to actress Cat Wilson, whom he wed in December 2003. Both marriages ended in divorce. If you’ve seen sites listing Cat Wilson as his current wife, that information is outdated. Their divorce finalized three years after they got married, and Yoba has not publicly remarried.
The confusion makes sense. IMDB’s own bio page still says “has been married to Cat Wilson since 21 December 2003” present tense, no mention of the divorce. That’s wrong, and it’s been wrong for years.
Here’s the actual timeline, sourced and straightened out.
QUICK FACTS
- Full name: Abdul-Malik Kashie Yoba
- Born: September 17, 1967, Bronx, New York
- First marriage: Trisha Mann (dates unclear; sources conflict on whether they legally married or were engaged)
- Second marriage: Cat Wilson (married December 21, 2003; divorced, finalized June 2008)
- Children: Three — Dena, Josiah, and Pria
- Current relationship status: Not publicly married
Was Malik Yoba Married to Trisha Mann?
This is where the record gets messy. Wikipedia describes Trisha Mann as someone Yoba was “previously engaged to”—not married. But multiple other sources, including IMDB, Famous Birthdays, and the Empire Fandom wiki, describe her as a former wife he divorced.
Mann is an actress and model who co-starred with Yoba in the stage musical His Woman, His Wife, which ran at New York’s Beacon Theatre around 2000. They share a daughter named Dena.
Neither Yoba nor Mann has publicly clarified the discrepancy between “engaged” and “married” in any interview available online. The safest way to describe it: they were in a long-term relationship, they may or may not have legally married, and they share a daughter. The exact dates of the relationship haven’t been publicly confirmed either.
What’s clear is that the relationship ended before Yoba married Cat Wilson in 2003.
Who Is Cat Wilson?
Cat Wilson is an actress and producer born on April 25, 1980, in Philadelphia. She’s best known for playing Gwendolyn in R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet, the serialized hip-hopera that became a cult phenomenon in the mid-2000s. She appeared in both Chapters 1–12 (2005) and Chapters 13–22 (2007). Her other credits include the film Oh Happy Day (2004), guest spots on the sitcoms Jake in Progress and Cuts, and work as an associate producer and location manager on the 2013 short film 9 Days.
Wilson and Yoba married on December 21, 2003, in a private ceremony. She was 23 at the time; he was 36, a 13-year age gap.
The marriage lasted roughly three and a half years before they separated. In an IMDB-sourced interview, Yoba described the split candidly: “I got a phone call. (She said), ‘We should be separated.’ I’m back in Brooklyn. I moved out of L.A. in January.” He noted the marriage lasted “just three-and-a-half years.”
The divorce finalized in June 2008. Some sources attribute the breakup to their demanding careers and conflicting schedules. Per TVOvermind, other reports suggested Yoba was seen with other women during the marriage. Neither Wilson nor Yoba has spoken about the reasons in any detail publicly.
Wilson has kept a low profile since. She and Yoba reportedly maintain a civil co-parenting relationship.
How Many Kids Does Malik Yoba Have?
Yoba has three children: a daughter named Dena, a son named Josiah, and a daughter named Pria.
The parentage question is one more area where online sources can’t agree. Yoba has one daughter with Trisha Mann (Dena) and “another daughter and a son from a prior relationship”—meaning Josiah and Pria would predate the Mann relationship. Famous Birthdays says Dena and Josiah are both with Trisha Mann, and Pria is from a prior relationship. TheEmpire wiki version agrees with that.
In the separation interview with IMDB, Yoba himself said he had “three children, ages 12, nine and seven, from a previous relationship,” implying none of his children are with Cat Wilson.
Yoba has been protective of his children’s privacy but does share family moments occasionally on social media. He’s spoken about fatherhood with clear warmth, writing on Instagram for Father’s Day: “An essential aspect of being a parent is to continue to look ahead while focusing on the now.”
Is Malik Yoba Married Now?
No. As of 2026, Malik Yoba has not publicly remarried.
His post-divorce romantic life has been largely private. In 2018, he posted a rare Instagram tribute to a girlfriend named BJ Hendrix, writing in theJasmineBrand-covered post that they had met through an online dating service and calling her “the most incredible woman I’ve ever had the pleasure of loving.”
In 2019, Yoba made headlines for reasons unrelated to dating when he publicly stated on Instagram that he is attracted to transgender women, identifying himself as a heterosexual man. He announced his participation in the National Trans Visibility March in Washington, D.C. The Washington Blade reported on the revelation and the public response that followed.
More recently, social media chatter has linked him to South African television anchor Claire Mawisa, though neither has confirmed an official relationship.
Be cautious about what you read online regarding his current status. At least one widely circulated article claims Yoba’s current wife is someone named “Denise Yoba”—person who appears to be entirely fabricated. That article also lists his birthday wrong and names a character he never played. It’s fiction presented as biography.
Malik Yoba Beyond His Marriages
Reducing Malik Yoba to his relationship history misses most of the story.
He was born in the Bronx on September 17, 1967, the fourth of six children, and raised in a devout Muslim household in East Harlem. His parents, Mahmoudah Young and Abdullah Yoba, didn’t keep a television in the house. He found acting through the Negro Ensemble Theatre, where he worked starting in 1983, the same year, at 15, he survived being shot.
His breakout came with Cool Runnings in 1993, and a year later he landed the role that made his name, Detective J.C. Williams on New York Undercover. That show made television history as the first American police drama to star two people of color in lead roles. Yoba won three consecutive NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series, in 1996, 1997, and 1998.
Since then, his credits run deep: Vernon Turner on Empire, Gavin in Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? films, FBI Deputy Director Jason Atwood on Designated Survivor, and roles in Seven Seconds, The Last O.G., and The Equalizer. In 2019, he debuted Harlem to Hollywood, a one-man autobiographical show at the Apollo Theater where he played 20 characters and performed original music.
Off-screen, Yoba has built a second career in real estate. He founded Yoba Development in 2017 with the goal of giving young people of color access to the industry. The company has active projects in Baltimore and NYC.
And in 2021, his life took a turn that put everything else in perspective. On August 19, 2021, Yoba underwent quadruple bypass surgery, the result of hereditary heart disease. At his 2022 Livingstone College graduation speech, where he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, he framed it in terms only he would: “I got three birthdays. I was born on September 17, 1967. I got shot on January 18, 1983. And I had quadruple bypass surgery on Aug. 19, 2021.”
He’s since become an advocate for heart health awareness, particularly among Black men, and founded the Open Hearts Club, a walking group that started as part of his own recovery and grew into something bigger.
That’s a life that doesn’t fit neatly into a search query about who he married. But the marriages—to Trisha Mann and to Cat Wilson—are part of a much larger picture. And the picture is still being filled in.
