The genes in Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen’s family are extraordinary. As sisters, the two have conquered every aspect of entertainment, ranging from Broadway to television to the big screen. Now their children are shocking the world by showing that indeed talent runs in their blood.
The world might already know about Condola Rashad, the serious theater actress who has four Tony nominations, two more than her Tony award-winning mother. But many probably have not met her cousin, Norman “Thump” Nixon Jr. — who is also an actor — on the show his mom directs, “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Thump joined the show during its 13th season as Intern James, now as a full-fledged nurse (five seasons later), viewers are getting used to him as another addition to the series’ history of featuring handsome men in scrubs as eye candy.
Yet now, there is something other than his good looks, that has fans gagging. Like his mom, Thump — who carries the name of his two-time NBA champion dad Norm Nixon — is a dancer.
During downtime between takes, the 33-year-old busted out a dance routine with his mom and another person, dropping them into the “Ayy Bay Bay” by Traahvie TikTok challenge.
The dance challenge was created and made viral by Jubi2Fye, a dance content creator with over 1.3 million followers on TikTok.
Throughout the video, Thump does a variation of Michael Jackson’s pelvic thrust, glides across the hospital hallways, boogies in front of would-be hospital rooms, pops out in an emergency vehicle, and twinkles his toes out of the ER.
Both he and his mother posted the video on Instagram, prompting a collective more than 174,000 likes from fans.
Mom captioned her post, “Taking a dance break with my son @ThumpNixon on set of @GreysABC! I wonder where he gets it from.”
Beyoncé’s mom, Tina Knowles-Lawson (a woman that knows something about talented children), wrote in the comment section, “Love it like Mother like Son!” Allen responded with hearts and kisses.
Also in the comments was Taraji P. Henson, who dropped multiple laughing faces, as did Terri Vaughn, Holly Robinson Peete, and Affion Crockett.
Mara Brock Akil wrote “Love this!! Love y’all! Hey @thumpnixon.”
One fan wrote, “He might look like his daddy, but he got his swag from his mother!!!”
Another said, “Idk why but I want Debbie to adopt me as an adult.”
“Omg i didn’t know that was her son,” another commented in disbelief.
Still one fan shut it down stating, “We shouldn’t be surprised about his moves…. look at who his mother is!! THE Debbie Allen!!”
His Hollywood family and fans were not the only ones enjoying his skills as a dancer. So was his mother, the critically acclaimed choreographer and dancer.
Underneath Young Nixon’s post of the video, his mom wrote, “love you Thump always soo much fun.”
This is not the first time that fans have gotten a peek at the Allens dancing together — having so much fun — in a viral moment.
In 2016, Thump posted a video of himself and his family rocking the “Killing ’Em With The Shoulders,” while on vacation.
He captioned the video, “When ur stupid and u gas ur whole family @droow_alln @chloe.allen__ @vivienixie @calikiddevo@nfrazierallen my dog @bigtex1963 came through with the kappa shimmy and of course, @therealdebbieallen came through strong on em…. “
Seems like this family really knows how to have fun with these viral challenges.
