Vanessa Bell Calloway’s Soap Role Is Still Why Fans Recognize Her

Vanessa Bell Calloway has discovered daytime soap opera fans never forget a face.

During the last decade, Calloway has appeared on Broadway in “Dreamgirls,” in which she played the stepsister; in feature films such as “Coming to America,” and on numerous TV series including “L.A. Law,” “Equal Justice” and, most recently, “Dream On.” She is most recognized for her role as bad girl Yvonne Caldwell on ABC’s daytime soap “All My Children.”

“All My Children,” says the Cleveland native, helped her career “because I broke up a very famous couple, Jesse and Angie. I came in and messed up their lives. I was on that soap twice. I did it and then came to Los Angeles for a year and a half. Then they asked me back because our story line was so popular.”

Never mind the fact that she hasn’t played Yvonne in five years, Calloway says, “at least two or three days a week, every week, somebody comes up and says, ‘Aren’t you the girl who broke up Jesse?’ I was at the African Marketplace this weekend and sure enough, (someone asked) ‘Aren’t you that girl from “All My Children”?’ ”

Perhaps soon, Calloway, who is married to an anesthesiologist and the mother of a 2-year-old daughter, will be recognized for her role as feisty Colette Hawkins on the NBC series “Rhythm & Blues,” which despite a plum Thursday at 8:30 p.m. time slot sandwiched between the hits “Different World” and “Cheers,” has failed to catch fire this season. It’s going on hiatus after next week’s show.

In the sitcom, which stars Anna Maria Horsford and Ron Glass, Calloway plays the program director of a black radio station in Detroit. “She is going to be a very strong person,” Calloway says of Colette. “She has to be.”

Calloway says she is amazed people hire her to do comedy. “Drama, I know I can do that. (Comedy) has given me a chance to branch out. I am not just a person who can break up relationships, cry and have nervous breakdowns.”