With production kicking off in Oakland and Los Angeles, Shadow and Act has learned the full cast that will join Jasmine Cephas Jones in the Blindspotting TV spinoff.

Inspired by the critically-acclaimed film of the same name, the project hails from Lionsgate TV. Lionsgate was the distributor of the original film which was written by and starred Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal. Cephas Jones, who portrayed Ashley in the original film, will star in the lead role for the series and reprise her role. Casal and Diggs will write and produce the series version and Casal is the showrunner.

Benjamin Earl Turner, Atticus Woodward, Jaylen Barron and Candace Nicholas-Lippman will star opposite Cephas Jones.

“Diggs and I are thrilled to continue our partnership with Lionsgate by expanding the Blindspotting world as a series on STARZ,” Rafael Casal said. “This story, the incredible cast and the production are a dream. We are making the kind of show we have long hoped to see on television, centered around just some of the amazing kinds of characters the Bay Area has to offer.

“Figuring out a way to bring The Bay to life in a half-hour comedy space has been so rewarding,” Daveed Diggs adds. “Ultimately, this is a story about how a broken prison system affects all of us and, like the film, we’re using comedy to talk about very real systemic effects in the country with the largest prison population in the world.”

In the series, Cephas Jones’ Ashley is nipping at the heels of a middle-class life in Oakland until Miles, her partner of 12 years and father of their son, is suddenly incarcerated.  Turner will play Earl, who is fresh out of jail and wearing an ankle monitor while doing a year of house arrest. He is just trying to kill time and lay low. Turner also serves as a writer on the series.

Woodward will play Ashley and Miles’ sweet, smart and energetic son, Sean. Barron will play Miles’ younger half-sister, Trish, who might be wilder than he is. While she is quite a handful, she is the most loyal and loving person you’ll ever meet. Nicholas-Lippman, discovered by Casal and Diggs through an open Northern Calif. casting call and her spoken-word poetry, will play Ashley’s close friend, Janelle, who is equal parts TOWN as hell and worldly. She has just returned to the neighborhood in Oakland after spending many years in Bali.

 

Photo: Starz