Remember When Tamera Mowry-Housley Played The Evil Chameleon On Are You Afraid Of The Dark? She Reflects On The Iconic Role

Tamera Mowry-Housley may be best known for her work in comedy and romance, but one of her early roles pushed her into unfamiliar territory and she loved every minute of it. Thirty years ago, she appeared in the iconic Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode “The Tale of the Chameleons,” a role she still vividly remembers.

“30 years. No, don’t be sorry,” Mowry-Housley laughed during an interview with Pop Culture Planet for her film Haunted Harmony Mysteries: Prelude To A Wedding when reminded of the anniversary. “Because I think it’s pretty cool that I am still acting. I am still doing what I love to do.”

The episode featured the memorable line “Bite you once, bite you twice, a little water, pay the price,” which Mowry-Housley admits she’ll “never forget.” “It was technically my first drama,” she explained. “I had only done comedy and I fell in love with it.”

For Mowry-Housley, part of the excitement came from experiencing a completely different style of production. “When you do sitcom, it's four cameras,” she said. “When you do drama, it's a single camera, a little bit slower, a little bit more intimate, and it's almost scary. It was quite intense to be a kid show.”

But the most exciting part was that Mowry-Housley was already a fan of the series herself. “I just remember being grateful because we used to watch Are You Afraid of the Dark?” she gushed. “So when they asked us to do it, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so cool!’”

From being at the center of a creepy chameleon tale in Are You Afraid of the Dark? to seeing ghosts in the Haunted Harmony Mysteriesmovies, Mowry-Housley has certainly come a long way in the world of the supernatural. Relive her Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode on Paramount+ and stream Haunted Harmony Mysteries: Prelude to a Wedding on Hallmark+.