Despite sharing screen time with her sister, Chloe Bailey stands out from the rest as the charismatic Jazz Forster

Chloe Bailey is a singer turned actress that plays the fast-talking, track star set for success– Jazz Forster in season one of Grown-ish. She is hilarious in every scene and delivers straightforward answers without ever missing a beat. Jazz is the uplifting yet unfiltered friend that you can always expect to get a real and truthful response from. As Jazz, Bailey can bring humor into any moment with just one facial expression and never disappoints with the line delivery. We’re so glad that she’s a part of this ensemble of young college students. Bailey is a rising star and amazing at bringing all of her scenes to life!

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Normally known for her music, Chloe Bailey is a fresh new face on the comedy scene and turns dull moments around throughout the first season. Although she’s starred in some films before Grown-ish, this is the first project that has really given her a chance to show off her abilities consistently, and she did not disappoint. During the season we got to see Jazz go through money problems, boy troubles, and little fights with her sister. She’s a firecracker of a woman but she also has the same issues as any other college student. Bailey helps to portray a character with equal parts sauciness and equal parts class. Not to mention, she doesn’t steer away from asking for what she needs, like the last bit of your food because she can’t afford a bigger meal. Chloe’s portrayal as Jazz brings a blunt but lively vibe to her scenes and that’s why we couldn’t help but name her the season one Grown-ish scene stealer.

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Chloe Bailey is a surprisingly hilarious star– adding humor to dry scenes with her perfect comedic timing.

With so many supporting main cast characters, it may seem hard to catch a really good standout, but it was not hard to spot Chloe Bailey as our scene stealer. Bailey manages to add life to every one of her scenes with quick clapbacks and great comedic timing. The actors on this show aren’t amazing but sometimes they have their moments and Chloe manages to nail every scene that Jazz appears in by making it a memorable one. When she yells at Zoey for stereotyping her about the kinds of TV shows she and her sister watch, we laughed and felt a little bad for Zoey at the same time. Bailey is amazing at playing off of her counterparts and this scene showed just that. She comes in just at the right moment with her “words of wisdom” and clever responses– always making sure to get what she has to say out.

Zoey: “Look, I’m sorry I pulled you two away from Basketball Wives.”

Jazz: “We were watching Big Bang Theory you racist ****.”

Out of all of Zoey’s closest girlfriends, Jazz is the one to always tell her exactly how it is. She’s there to make sure that Zoey doesn’t make the dumb mistakes and clueless decisions. It’s always nice to see the reactions from Yara Shahidi when Bailey’s Jazz expresses her opinion on one of Zoey’s stressful situations– even if they sometimes come out extremely harsh. Jazz definitely has that stereotypical, code-switching, black girl – who’s actually “hood” description, but it’s Chloe’s relatable performance to be just a simple, black girl with a voice that makes us love this character. She’s way more than what meets the eye and it’s nice to know that there is more to her than just being a track star.

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The dynamic duo of Jazz and Sky are perfectly played by Chloe and Halle Bailey– providing space for Chloe to show their nice on-screen sisterly bond.

We cannot talk about Chloe’s ability to steal a scene without mentioning her partner in crime Halle Bailey. The two fit so well together and are a spectacular duo as Jazz and Sky. From their first introduction, we could tell that we were going to love these two. They popped out with the “B.T. Dubs, your hair is everything” line and we were hooked. From their tag-teamed snarky comebacks to their great sisterly moments, we love it all. They give the best side glances of disapproval and never fail to contribute something that only another great comedic duo on the show – Trevor Jackson and Luka Sabbat – can sometimes add. The two girls battle money issues and boy troubles together but their off-screen love for each other is just as palpable on-screen. The majority of their scenes are of them firing off phrases at a speed without a stumble. We always love it when Chloe and Halle show up on screen because we know that we’re in for a treat.

Aaron: “So get a job.”

Sky: “When? Between 5:00 a.m. classes and midnight classes?”

Jazz: “Yeah, we’re not going to be those sad chicks at the fast-food joints selling burgers at 3:00 a.m.”

They have their best moments when they play off of each other. Both, Jazz and Sky, have very similar personalities playing twins on Grown-ish, but Chloe is very good at displaying how they have different qualities. Chloe’s sarcastic tone makes her more appealing to the audience when she plays off of her sister. While we love them together, we see how Chloe manages to make a bigger presence than Halle. However, without this dynamic duo, Grown-ish would be a lot less fun to watch and we would probably cringe at more jokes than we do laugh. Even though they sometimes have a mouthful of words to get out, the two add the right amount of emotion to the correct words so that we don’t miss the joke. We hope we get a lot more of these sisters both separate and together in season two because Chloe and Halle are a huge part of the reason we love the charm of Grown-ish.

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Chloe’s portrayal of a young black woman facing hardships and frustrations provided us with a deeper understanding of Jazz’s character

One of the best episodes of the season perfectly showcased more of Chloe’s acting range on the show. “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp” tackled the inner thoughts of black women– specifically Jazz and Sky’s mind, by digging into a huge cultural issue. The entire episode could have come off a bit rough and just a series of complaints, but thanks in part to Chloe’s portrayal of a discouraged college girl, the frustrations came through beautifully. We finally got to see a more vulnerable and less confident side of this character through the way she delivered each line. This gave us more character development for Jazz and Sky. Jazz is a strong character on the outside, who constantly has to put up a front, but this episode showed us that even though she’s a big athlete on campus, she still has basic college struggles. Bailey put on an epic performance in this episode and really made the words written in the script come to life. Every sentence could come out as just a boring list of facts, but Bailey manages to add the right amount of wit. Her posture is firm when stating her views and facts on the situation.  She adds the right amount of intensity to every word so not everything is said in a monotone fashion.

“I don’t know what I want. Actually, no, that’s not true. What I want is to have the same college experience as Ana or Nomi.” – Jazz Forster

Often depicted as the “Angry Black Girl”, Grown-ish let the personalities of Jazz and Sky pop out so that we could see how their dating lives were going. Jazz already has a huge personality and in this episode, she was more or less labeled as the sassy black girl with an attitude simply because she voiced her opinion. Chloe’s performance exemplified a young black girl going through a series of emotions and thoughts throughout the episode. The misunderstood look displayed on Chloe’s face catapulted the awkward pauses in the conversation to really make an impact in the episode. The defeated expression deliberately chosen by Bailey when Jazz talks with her sister was perfect for the tone of the scene. Even when Jazz and Sky are confronted by a guy at the end of the episode, Chloe manages to steal the scene with her sly looks and smirks. It’s these moments that make her stand out, especially in this episode.  Although the episode did have its issues, we hope that Grown-ish provides more material for Bailey’s Jazz to show other sides to her than just what’s on the surface.

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With season two of Grown-ish on its way, we can’t wait to see more of Chloe Bailey as the outspoken Jazz Forster

Season one of Grown-ish only gave us a taste of what issues this cast of young college students is capable of tackling. We saw them go through a lot of ups and downs– some more emotional than the rest. However rough it got for them, we got a few good laughs out–  mostly because of the lovely Chloe Bailey. She’s a part of what makes this group of random losers work so well together. They all have their fun and annoying qualities but that’s just the charm of this group. Even though everyone in the group of friends is opinionated and assertive in their beliefs, Chloe Bailey’s Jazz takes a different approach that helps the audience see her a bit differently from the rest. Zoey needs that tough love sometimes and having Chloe be the one to deliver those lines was a great choice. Jazz is more complex than what we saw in season one but we know that we’ll get to see many different sides of her in future seasons.

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This is only the first season of Grown-ish so we are sure Chloe Bailey has so much more to show us of what she can do. She’s an actress that’s great in the comedic area and we can see her going far with hard work and dedication.  Chloe’s performance brings the duality of a confident, yet imperfect young woman to life. She not only brings humor but a unique demanding presence that draws the audience to her. Whenever the camera focuses on her, her presence amplifies and steals the scenes. She’s already doing amazing on the music scene so we see no problem with her expanding into a successful actress. Chloe Bailey’s Jazz is a flawed, confident, strong and a “take no crap” type of woman. Bailey is an unexpected surprise and commands attention in all her scenes. We’re confident that as this show grows, Chloe Bailey will grow with it and that’s why we couldn’t go without mentioning her scene-stealing moments for Grown-ish.