Which actor replaced Janet Hubert as Vivian Banks in season 4?

Daphne Maxwell Reid replaced Janet Hubert as Vivian Banks beginning in season 4 of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Hubert played the original Vivian Banks, commonly called Aunt Viv, during the first three seasons. Reid took over the role in season 4 and continued playing Vivian through the series finale in season 6. The character remained the Banks family’s mother and Philip Banks’s wife, even though the performer changed.

The recasting is one of the best-known continuity changes in the sitcom. The series did not write Vivian out or create a new character; it presented Reid as the same Vivian Banks. Reid brought her own performance style to the role while retaining the character’s central position in the family’s household and storylines.

The change is sometimes confused with guest appearances by other performers in the show’s large celebrity cast. Vanessa Bell Calloway, Jenifer Lewis, and Vivica A. Fox did not replace Hubert as Vivian. Reid is the canonical answer, and the main cast listing records Hubert in seasons 1–3 and Reid in seasons 4–6.