Eddie Murphy's Daughter, Bella, Had to Learn a Fake Accent for 'Coming 2 America'

When you have a parent who is a super famous and legendary actor, the likelihood of you making a cameo in one of their projects is probably very high.

For instance, Eddie Murphy's daughter made an appearance in his new film Coming 2 America and she wasn't just an extra in a scene. She actually had a very significant role in the sequel!

So, if you're here because you just watched the movie and are looking to find all the answers to your burning questions about it — one of them for sure being "Is Eddie Murphy's daughter in Coming to America 2?" — then we can help you with all that! 

Yes, the celebrity's biological daughter, Bella Murphy, is in his latest motion picture! The 19-year-old plays Omma, one of three princesses of Prince/King Akeem, aka Eddie Murphy's character. 

The story fast-forwards to 30 years from where the first film left off. Prince (now King) Akeem has three daughters with his wife Lisa (played by Shari Headley) — who he married at the end of Coming to America. He also finds out that he has a son — who he had from a brief fling with another woman before he met Lisa.

With the news that Akeem has a son who is older than his daughters, it starts up some tension involving his eldest daughter, Meeka, as she is now up to fight for her position as heir to the throne. It's pretty juicy! 

Eddie gave his kids strict rules. One of them being that if they ever wanted to work in acting, they would have to be of a certain age... which is 18 years old. Both her dad and mom (Nicole Murphy) felt that being a child actor was too much work and stress for a kid. This restriction was something that Bella was really frustrated with because she had had a passion for acting since she was young.

After watching her father's work in Beverly Hills Cop and Shrek — some of her favorites from Eddie — Bella confirmed that her biggest aspiration was to be in front of the camera. When she wasn't 18 years old just yet, she'd ask her dad if she could work in some of his projects. “I used to always ask, ‘Can I be in this one?’ He’s like, ‘Bella you have to be 18.’ I was like, ‘I know but like…please!?” she exclusively told Madame Noire.

She also added: "I would always ask, ‘Can I please be an extra?’ I just love acting so it’s really fun for me. Even being an extra is awesome to me."

Her big break on the big screen came right before the magical age of 18, when Coming 2 America was being developed. Bella had asked her dad if she could be an extra in it, as she always does, but he saw her as something more than that for this specific film.

“I’d been doing acting classes outside and I’d been doing a bunch of scenes with him. I guess he just saw that I was was really serious about it and how passionate I was,” she says, “He told me if I wanted to I could audition for the role of the princess. I did because I wanted to really bad [laughs]. He helped me a bunch with it and it was really cool,” she said in her interview. You know, just the everyday life of an average teenager!

In order to really master her character, she took on virtual learning for her senior year of high school to dedicate time to working on the film where she practiced with a stunt double for fight scenes and learned a fictional Zamundan accent. She found it difficult at first to acquire a fake accent, but she did a lot of research to perfect it.

“When I got the role I kind of panicked for a little bit,” she said of having to put on the accent. “But then I checked in with myself and was like, ok, you can do this. I think I watched Black Panther so many times…I watched the original Coming to America. I started listening to African speakers speak on YouTube," she told Madame Noire. That's dedication!

Bella talked about her character, Omma, and said, "she’s studious and smart and she gets to beat up a couple people, which I had a lot of fun with, as mean as that sounds." But the deeper characteristics is what has always drawn her to the role, "To be able to play a princess, that is such an empowering role for women, especially Black women.”