Eddie Murphy had no intentions of raising child actors. Eddie and his then-wife, Nicole Murphy, believed the entertainment industry was incompatible with a healthy childhood, so they laid down some directives their children had to abide by. “We have a rule in our house. We’re not allowed to work in this industry until we’re 18,” Bella Murphy said on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in March 2021. Eddie highlighted it was his priority to ensure they finished school first.
But Bella hasn’t exactly been a happy follower of the rule. “I wanted to do acting since I was in third grade,” she said. In fact, she had tried to persuade her father to let her break the rule since she a kid. “I used to always ask, ‘Can I be in this one?’ He’s like, ‘Bella you have to be 18.’ I was like, ‘I know but like… please!?” she recalled in a 2021 interview with MadameNoire. “I would always ask, ‘Can I please be an extra?’ I just love acting so it’s really fun for me. Even being an extra is awesome to me.”
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Bella was persistent, but Eddie didn’t give in. “I didn’t even really get to work until [I turned 18],” she told DeGeneres. Bella made her acting debut in the 2021 comedy “Coming 2 America,” sharing the screen with her famous father. Bella went on to star in a 2022 episode of Hulu’s “Dollface” and in the 2023 coming-of-age film “Fairyland.”
