Moving to Los Angeles after college graduation, Fetty landed his first role on the then-popular high school drama Room 222 and began acting regularly in television and feature films.
Fetty co-starred in the John Milius films Big Wednesday as a surfer called "Waxer" and in The Wind and the Lion as a bumbling junior diplomat.
During the early days of his acting career, Darrell Fetty supplemented his income as a Story Analyst, reviewing screenplays for studios and independent producers, starting at American International Pictures for the legendary Sam Arkoff.
In the late 1990s, he began working full-time as a writer/producer for TV shows, beginning as a staff writer on NBC's Viper, created by Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo.
Fetty married his second wife, former model turned actress Joyce Ingalls, at a ceremony at the Little Brown Church in Studio City in 1984.