Community Loses Another Cast Member as Yvette Nicole Brown Leaves For Family Reasons

Yvette Nicole Brown has asked to be released from her Community contract ahead of the sixth and final season airing on Yahoo! Screen next year, TV Guide reports.

Brown will become the third member of the series' main cast to permanently depart, following Chevy Chase at the end of Season Four and Donald Glover partway into Season Five. Unlike those two, though, it wasn't professional reasons but personal ones that led her to leave.

"My dad needs daily care and he needs me," Brown told the magazine. "The idea of being away 16 hours a day for five months, I couldn't do it. It was a difficult decision for me to make, but I had to choose my dad."

"Yvette was an integral part of Community and is irreplaceable. We are sad to see her go and wish her the very best," producers Dan Harmon and Chris McKenna said in a joint statement.

Jonathan Banks also won't be back next season, because of his commitment to AMC's Better Call Saul. The Breaking Bad tough guy joined Community in its fifth season and both his and Brown's characters will reportedly be replaced in the series. Brown has left the door open to a guest appearance, and said that with children and a business to run, she's glad her character's disappearance is fairly easy to explain in-story.

"I'm still Community's biggest fan and I'll still live Tweet episodes," Brown says. "It's very bittersweet. I can take care of my dad but won't be with my TV family. I don't want the fans to worry; it's going to be fine. Greendale is the heart of the show, not any particular character. Even if characters come and go, the heart of Greendale remains."