ALMOST THERE GIRLS!
=3: Kenya Moore - Real Housewives of Atlanta PART 1
And so we arrive at a Housewife I'm absolutely confident I could do their write up in GIF FORM ONLY, and absolutely one of the most dominant and divisive Housewives of ALL Housewives. Ms Kenya Moore, former Miss USA 1993 (an honour she will NEVER let you forget!)
Her crowning moment is actually QUITE LOVELY, especially as it ended up defining most of the rest of her ENTIRE LIFE:
Kenya is one of those Housewives who just has SO MUCH to write about, and has caused SO MUCH drama it's really impossible for me to cover it all in anything less than a novel - so please excuse me if I miss out several key moments as there really, honestly is not the space. Virtually every single scene Kenya is part of ends up revolving around her, or drama caused BY her - and the shade, clapbacks and one-liners are just so voluminous it's QUITE THE CHALLENGE trying to document them all.
To this day Kenya is an absolute marmite figure within the fanbase - she's either ADORED as the ultimate reality TV messy icon who frankly takes a lot of the responsibility for keeping Atlanta GOING since Nene checked out....or she's HATED for basically the exact same reasons

There's very little middle ground within the fanbase when it comes to Kenya, and I'm obviously on #TEAMTWIRL as a total ride or die.
That's not to say that being a fan of Kenya isn't difficult. She can be quite problematic,
apparently often unintentionally

, but I'm unable to defend her semi-regular slip ups so I'm not going to try - just LAST WEEK she wore a Native American headdress through an entire episode. But as a Housewives villain I'd say she is matched by only our beloved Danielle Staub, and Kenya has at least an iota of WARMTH which lets her stand aside from Danielle's rather psychotic TV persona
Shall we start at the (Housewives) beginning..?
Kenya entered Atlanta at the start of season 5. A pivotal and somewhat rocky time for the Atlanta franchise. The show's three biggest stars of the first five seasons were:
Nene - pursuing an acting career off and on-screen. Not TOTALLY checked out yet, but an unreliable lead for the franchise at that point.
Kim - TOTALLY checked out. Would only film in her own HOUSE. Left the show mid-way through a group scene early in the season.
Sheree - FIRED!
The show needed fresh blood, and not just a quick patch around the core cast - the show actively needed a new star to replace the RATHER LARGE HOLE that had emerged in the biggest show in reality TV due to the above. Step forward actress, producer and pageant title holder Ms Kenya Moore (and also Porsha who basically does nothing for the whole of season 5 lol)
Kenya in season 5 is just an absolute TOUR DE FORCE. So much so it's known as 'the arrival of hurricane Kenya' within the fanbase.
NEVER EVER has a single cast member dominated a season in the way Kenya did in season 5, and despite strong attempts since (recently Leah in NYC and Tiffany in Dallas are good examples) I don't think we'll EVER see anybody match the
dominance of Kenya like we did in season 5. The season might as well be called RHoA: THE KENYA MOORE SEASON

Thankfully however, unlike other domineering figures (SOGGY FLICKER!), Kenya was, and still is, an absolute scream to watch.
Kenya was initially cast as what I call a 'chaos Housewife'. She was copy and pasted into the cast with the sole intent of causing drama. Usually this genre of Housewife burns bright and fast, but our Kenya has STAYING POWER.
Kenya has a reasonable CV as an actress pre-show - she was in Girlfriends, Whitney's Waiting To Exhale, and various other not-
too embarrassing films before joining Atlanta, and her acting past REALLY SHOWS - especially in her early years. From day 1 Kenya has treated the show like an extended Kenya Moore biopic rather than an ensemble cast, and Twirl is ALWAYS the star. One of her first scenes was judging a modelling contest for Cynthia, and Kenya acts honestly quite disgracefully, but ultimately ensuring that ALL FOCUS is on herself - and it worked. Kenya is not a team player, nor does she particularly care for cast alliances - unless they particularly benefit her.
In season 5 Kenya brings more storylines than most Housewives bring in ENTIRE CAREERS. It's actually a little exhausting

She brings you:
- A long-forgotten CANCER SCARE storyline that lasts about three episodes (!)
- The beginnings of her epic story-arc with Phaedra, initially starting as FRIENDS perversely enough. Season 5 is the one with their infamous donkey-booty workout DVD FEUD!
- The weird and CLEARLY fake boyfriend that she brings on the cast trip that she has zero chemistry with, and all the rest of the cast are convinced is gay

- Various introductions to family DEMONS
- Similarly we get the start of the ludicrous, never ending mess that is her feud with Porsha, cumulating in the iconic 'gone with the wind fabulous' scene seen above in GIF FORM:
this scene also inspired a purely FOR THE GAYS ONLY single featuring Shangela

:
and yes it had a live performance on WWHL

I actually think this is the
correct side of weird to be really quite camp

:
PHEW that is A LOT for a debut season. A LOT!
Kenya continues this dominance into season 6, where she does take a (very) slight back seat compared to season 5 - but still brings ANOTHER fake boyfriend (her "African sweet"

) and a sperm-bank based baby-chasing storyline that resulted in Pheadra's epic read mentioned in Phaedra's above write up.