Stephanie Beatriz SaysBrooklyn Nine-NineReunion Was 'a Chance to Talk About' Andre Braugher: 'He Lives in Our Hearts Forever’ (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Stephanie Beatriz, Andre Braugher.Photo:Matt Winkelmeyer/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty; Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Matt Winkelmeyer/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty; Dia Dipasupil/Getty

TheBrooklyn Nine-Ninecast sticks together.

Stephanie Beatriztells PEOPLE that she and her former costars — includingAndy Samberg,Terry Crews,Melissa FumeroandChelsea Peretti— are all “still friends” and remain very present in each other’s lives.

“We all love each other very dearly,” she says at the Hulu on Disney+ launch event in Los Angeles on April 5. “I’ll never let those people go. They can try and get rid of me, but it’s not going to happen.”

The cast recently suffered a major loss whenAndre Braugherdied suddenly in December after a private battle with lung cancer. In March,they reunited to reflect on the loss and catch up. Beatriz, 43, says the cast dinner was “a chance for all of us to get together and make each other laugh.”

The ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ cast reunites after Andre Braugher’s death.Melissa Fumero/Instagram

Melissa Fumero/Instagram

Aphotofrom the reunion was shared on Instagram in a joint post from Crews, 55, and Fumero, 41. Joe Lo Truglio, Joel McKinnon Miller andDirk Blockerwere also present, along with Samberg, Peretti and Beatriz. Braugher’s Instagram account was tagged in the photo, above the cast members’ smiling faces.

“We laughed. We cried a little. We reminisced. We laughed some more. Nine Nine Forever,” the pair wrote in the caption.

Days after the dinner,Crews spoke to PEOPLE about reuniting with his former castmates, saying of the gathering, “We laughed, we cried, we missed Andre Braugher, who we lost a few months ago.”

“It was our time to reminisce and just think about how special our time together was,” continued Crews, who starred as Sergeant Terry Jeffords in the series. “It was wonderful.”

Reflecting on the eight-season run of the show from 2013 to 2021, he added, “To have a sitcom go that long — I don’t know if it’s going to happen again. It’s very rare, and we all recognize how fortunate we are and we love each other. We’ll always be a family. We’ll always be connected.”

Stephanie Beatriz as Rosa Diaz and Andre Braugher as Ray Holt in an episode of ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’.Jordin Althaus/Fox/Universal Television/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty

Jordin Althaus/Fox/Universal Television/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty

After news broke of Braugher’s death in December,the cast flooded social media with tributes to the late actor, with Peretti, 46, writing onInstagram: “I will always cherish our conversations, often with me hanging in your doorway barring your exit, and the insane opportunity to be your sidekick. Is it weird that I am also grieving for what Captain Holt meant to Gina? I really hoped and knew I would see you again. Hate that I won’t 💔.”

Blocker, who played Hitchcock onBrooklyn Nine-Nine,told PEOPLE that Braugher “was the captain, or the father figure, of the cast.”

“I’ll just remember how warm and kind and really how loving he was as a human being. It was just really special.”

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Marc Evan Jackson, who played Braugher’s onscreen husband Kevin, shared a sweetsnapof the pair from the set on X (formally Twitter) with the caption, “O Captain. My Captain.”

In a statement to PEOPLE, Jackson, 53, called Braugher “a giant, a genius, an artist, a legend and a force.”

“Andre elevated every moment he came anywhere near, and it was an honor to have known and worked with him,” he continued. “My deepest condolences to his family, and all those who like all of us, loved him very much.”

source: people.com