Her debut album, which has sold more than four million copies, earned Brandy two Grammy nominations, four Soul Train Awards, two Billboard Video Awards and the New York Children's Choice Award. She continued to soar in 1995, receiving her first feature credit as song performer on "Batman Forever" and scoring a huge hit with her "Sittin' Up in My Room" single from the "Waiting to Exhale" soundtrack. TV executives, inspired by her energetic style that was hip yet still wholesome, decided she could headline her own sitcom. CBS first bought the pilot for "Moesha", which cast her as an L.A. teen coping with growing up and a new stepmother (Sheryl Lee Ralph), but declined to order the project to series because its younger-skewing demographics were not in line with the rest of the network's line-up. The fledgling UPN (United Paramount Network) jumped at the show, which became an instant hit among teens after its January 1996 debut. Its realistic depiction of black middle-class family life had great universal appeal, and as the ultrahip high schooler Moesha Mitchell, Brandy became a role model and fashion plate, thanks, in part, to her flowing braids, which are styled every three weeks during eight-hour salon sessions.

ABC capitalized on Brandy's good-girl persona by casting her as the star of its remake of "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella" (1997), attracting more than 60 million viewers for its highest rated special in 13 years. "Moesha" had made her a bona fide TV star, but it was singing that was still her first love. VIBE magazine had described her voice as "a spine-chilling vibrato laced with rhythm-and-blues and gospel inflections," but her sophomore album was slow in coming. When it arrived in 1998, "Never Say Never" was well worth the wait, its more reflective and emotionally complex nature proclaiming Brandy an adult. One of the six songs she co-wrote, the duet "This Boy Is Mine" sang with fellow diva-in-training Monica, quickly rose to No 1 on the charts and eventually garnered the pair a Grammy. She continued to grow up in her feature acting debut, the slasher sequel "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" (1998), which marked the first public appearance of her navel, her first on-screen curse word and her first serious Hollywood make-out session. She followed with the ABC movie "Double Platinum" (1999), executive producing and starring opposite Diana Ross as an estranged mother and daughter in the first project from her production company, Norwood Entertainment Group.