Tabitha Brown & Kandi Burruss Dish on ‘Beyond the Gates’ Drama & Their On-Set Reunion

Beyond the Gates is getting a pair of high-profile visitors when Tabitha Brown and Kandi Burruss drop by for a special episode airing Thursday, October 22. 

Both guest appearances came about through executive producer Sheila Ducksworth, who also serves as president of the CBS Studios/NAACP Venture.

Burruss had lunch with Ducksworth before the show launched in February 2025. When she learned the series would film in Atlanta, she expressed an interest in appearing. This past spring, Ducksworth reached out. “She said she thought that there was an opportunity, a part that she felt fit me,” explains Burruss.

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Brown’s path to Fairmont Crest began with a conversation at an event where she met Ducksworth. With members of her family already hooked on the show, Brown was eager to get involved. “I was telling her, ‘I’m from North Carolina, and baby, this show is on everybody’s TV,’” Brown shares. “My daddy and my stepmom, they are talking about it every week, and I was like, ‘If there’s ever an opportunity for me to grace the presence and be able to come on the show, I would love that.’ Maybe within a couple of weeks, they sent this character to me, and I am honored.”

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In the episode, Dani Dupree (Karla Mosley) is the subject of a “Welcome to Your Life” television special. Brown plays Tia Allen, the show’s host, while Burruss portrays Kalista Kilroy, Dani’s first modeling agent.

Although Brown has been acting for more than two decades, she had never tackled soap work and found the experience exhilarating. “I want to say I had 16 pages,” she recalls. “And I said, ‘We shoot this all in one day?’ I have my own children’s show [Tab Time], and we shoot a bunch of pages in one day, but it’s just me talking to imaginary friends. This moved very fast, and way faster than anything I’ve ever done before. I don’t know how the actors are not the most paid on television because the way you have to have such muscle memory with your lines, just being sharp and on top of knowing where your camera is, knowing where your mark is, was new for me, but I actually really enjoyed it. It’s like an adrenaline rush.”

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Burruss, a singer, songwriter, actress and Real Housewives of Atlanta alum, had her own nerves to contend with before stepping onto the set. “Anytime that I join a new show or I’m the new person on the block, I’m always a little scared,” she admits. “People always think that I have it all together, but I really don’t. But this set definitely felt like a family, and everybody was so friendly as soon as I got there.”

Fortunately, the two guest stars already knew each other. Brown and Burruss had worked together on The Chi and were happy to reconnect on the soap. “It was a good time on set,” Brown reports. “I texted Kandi when I saw the call sheet; I was like, ‘Girl, we’re gonna see each other!’ I adore Kandi. She’s a good friend, so I was super excited to work with her.”

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The reunion helped put Burruss at ease, too. “It made me very comfortable because it’s always good to see a familiar face,” she explains. “When I got there, I was like, ‘How is this gonna be?’ And then I saw Tabitha, so that was super cool. She’s a friend, so that made me feel good. We went out to eat and all the things.”

Both women also relished the chance to spend time with the cast. Brown particularly enjoyed interacting with so many of Fairmont Crest’s residents. “I’ve played a host before, and I love talking to people,” says Brown. “It definitely made it enjoyable, but it also made me excited to talk to almost everybody. I got to meet and talk to all of the Dupree family. It was amazing  in between takes to get to know people in the moment.”

Burruss also appreciated the opportunity to meet some of the actors she’d long admired. “I was already a fan of Timon [Kyle Durrett, Bill Hamilton],” she shares. “And Tamara Tunie [Anita Williams Dupree], she’s one of those people who has been on so many things, and I was like, ‘OK, it’s a little intimidating to be in the room with her.’ But she’s amazing. Clifton Davis [Vernon Dupree] was really nice, and Ernestine [Johnson Morrison, Shanice Johnson] I know just from being around Atlanta, and it was nice seeing her as well.”

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Their characters bring very different energies to Fairmont Crest. “Tia is very professional, but she’s a girl’s girl,” says Brown. “She is a protector of women and wants to tell their stories in a beautiful way, but she also wants to make sure they’re seen in a very good light.”

Kalista, meanwhile, arrives with a score to settle. “She’s spicy,” previews Burruss. “I always love playing somebody that has come to start trouble. It’s always fun to play a villain of sorts, but Kalista feels like she’s been done wrong and she’s hurt by what she feels has been done to her. So Kalista is stirring up trouble, but she feels justified putting Dani on blast. Kalista is ready for some payback.”

For Brown, however, the biggest challenge of the experience had nothing to do with learning her lines or hitting her marks. It was keeping her guest appearance under wraps from her family. “The hardest part for me was keeping it a secret, because I know what big fans they are, and I wanted to make sure that they were surprised,” she explains. “I’m a daddy’s girl. I talk to him every single day. I’m also recovering from hip surgery, and he was out here staying with me for a little while when I first had the surgery. And it was so hard to keep it a secret from him, but honey, last week when that little teaser aired, I probably could have bought him for a penny when he called me. He was like, ‘You are gonna be on Beyond the Gates?!’ And no matter how successful I am, I have finally made it in his eyes.

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Both say they would welcome the opportunity to reprise their roles. “Absolutely,” enthuses Brown. “It was so much fun, I can’t even tell you. The whole day was amazing.”

“It was a wonderful experience,” echoes Burruss. “I felt the good energy from everybody, and they were so welcoming. Sheila has been so nice and is a great vibe and gave me great feedback. The directors were really nice. I would come back again and again.”

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