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PILOT SEASON

Deborah Ayorinde
Deborah Ayorinde

Deborah Ayordine has been cast as a series regular in the Bokeem Woodbine-led cast for the CBS pilot, Main Justice, which is based on the life of former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.  The series takes us into the tumultuous world of the 5th floor of the Department of Justice, where he takes on the biggest legal and investigative cases in the country all while being the youngest person to ever hold such an esteemed position. Ayorinde will play Ursula, the newly appointed Assistant Attorney General. A force of nature, she won’t let anyone or anything get in her way.” Ayorinde has been seen on the small screen in a recurring role on Marvel’s Luke Cage and was in Girls Trip last summer.

Howard Charles, Aliyah Royale
Howard Charles, Aliyah Royale

The Ava DuVernay and Greg Berlanti-produced racial drama pilot, Red Line, continues to fill out its cast, adding Howard Charles and Aliyah Royale. The joins the Emayatzy Corinealdi, who toplines the potential series, as well as other series regulars  Elizabeth Laidlaw, Noel Fisher and Michael Patrick Thornton. Red Line explores what happens after a white cop in Chicago mistakenly shoots and kills a black doctor, following three different families that all have connections with the case as the story is told from each perspective. Charles will play Ethan, Tia’s (Corinealdi) warm, kind husband who works as a train operator on Chicago’s Red Line. While he supports his wife’s political career, he cautions about reconnecting with her biological daughter.”

Angel Laketa Moore
Angel Laketa Moore

Angel Laketa Moore has been cast in a series regular role in the Fox comedy pilot, Rel, starring Lil Rel Howery and produced by Jerrod Carmichael. Newcomer Jordan R. Jones is also a series regular. The series revolves around a prideful, self-made success who lives by the code to ‘always believe in yourself and great things will come,’ who finds that attitude put to the test when he learns his wife is having an affair with his own barber. He tries to rebuild his life post-divorce as a long-distance single father on the South Side of Chicago who is on a quest for love, respect and a new barber. Moore will play Tiffany, Rel’s supportive, kind and driven best friend.”

 

Alana Arenas
Alana Arenas

Alana Arenas has been cast as a series regular in the pilot for CBS’s L.A. Confidential reboot. It follows three homicide detectives, a female reporter and a Hollywood actress whose paths intersect as the detectives pursue a sadistic serial killer among the secrets and lies of gritty, glamorous 1950s Los Angeles.” Arenas’ character June, a new character for the reboot, is an excellent reporter trying to do good in a bad world. Intelligent, perceptive insightful and tough, she writes stories that expose bad things.” Arenas, a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble, recently appeared in guest-starring roles on CBS’ BrainDead and Amazon’s Phillip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams.

Yusuf Gatewood
Yusuf Gatewood

Yusuf Gatewood has been cast as a lead in NBC’s clairvoyant drama, In Between Lines centers on Cassie, a mysterious young woman who reluctantly uses her gift of clairvoyance to help a veteran LAPD detective and a damaged ex-FBI outsider (Gatewood) solve the most unnerving and challenging cases the city encounters. This eerie ability also opens the door for her to see and talk to the dead, who are seeking help for unresolved problems, whether she likes it or not. Gatewood’s Damien Parrish is the new kid on the LAPD Homicide Squad. Damien used to be a Criminal Analyst with the FBI, and spent the last eight years in Florida.” Gatewood is most known for his role on The CW’s The Originals. 

Kimrie Lewis
Kimrie Lewis

Kimrie Lewis has nabbed a series regular role in the ABC comedy pilot, Single Parents. The potential series revolves around a group of dysfunctional single parents who lean on one another as they raise their kids, look for love and ultimately realize survival is only possible with the help of one another. Lewis will play Poppy, a single mother in touch with her sexuality and a bit of a hippie who she raises her son to always be himself.” She is most known for her recurring role on Scandal and her role in Tyler Perry’s Peeples. 

Devere Smith
Devere Smith

Newcomer Devere Rogers has been cast as one of the leads in the NBC comedy pilot, Friends-In-Law. Friends-In-Law centers on Brian (Rogers) and Jake who are polar opposites and must quickly figure out how to coexist when their respective best friends, Margaret and Randy, decide to get married. Brian fears that his best friend Margaret’s potential marriage to Randy will leave him left out. He forms an unlikely partnership with Randy’s best friend, Jake, to disrupt their union.”

 

TELEVISION

Raven Goodwin
Raven Goodwin

Raven Goodwin has been promoted to series regular for the second season of Showtime’s SMILF. She was a recurring cast member during the first season of the Golden Globe-nominated comedy series, appearing in nearly every episode without being a main cast member. Goodwin is coming off of a series regular role in BET’s Being Mary Jane, which will end its run with a two-hour TV movie this year.

Wyatt Cenac‘s upcoming HBO comedy docuseries, Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areasreleasing April 13, has a trailer now. Cenac, a longtime correspondent for  The Daily Show, examines a wide range of social and cultural problems facing Americans in the show, which will feature documentary-style field reports that serve as the focal point of each episode. These segments will take him around the country, from suburban Minneapolis to downtown Cincinnati to rural Texas, as he investigates systemic issues from his unique perspective. Cenac will also tackle more benign problems facing Americans, offering comedic solutions to everyday inconveniences. In addition, the show will feature in-studio commentary on current events, addressing issues and engaging the audience to keep the conversation going through social media.

Hulu has released the official trailer for The Handmaid’s Tale Season 2. The cast includes Samira Wiley, who is Emmy-nominated in this role. The Emmy-winning drama series returns with a second season shaped by Offred’s pregnancy and her ongoing fight to free her future child from the dystopian horrors of Gilead. “Gilead is within you” is a favorite saying of Aunt Lydia. In Season Two, Offred and all our characters will fight against – or succumb to – this dark truth.

FILM

Production has just wrapped on an upcoming crime thriller directed by Wes Miller called River Runs Red, which stars Taye Diggs, George Lopez, Luke Hemsworth, and John Cusack. Jaqueline Fleming, Gianni Capaldi, Briana Evigan and RJ Mitte round out the cast. Production wraps this week. Diggs stars as a Judge whose son is gunned down during a police stop. Being an inside cornerstone to the local justice system, he explores the system he serves to find justice for his son while holding his fragile marriage together. During this journey he meets Javier (George Lopez), who lost his son to the same officer years before. Together these men must decide where to find justice when all doors close.
 

WEB SERIES

The trailer for the new web series, Velvet, has been released. VELVET’s first season follows the budding friendship of Demetra and Cymone, two very different young women who work together at a minority-owned financial firm. As their worlds and friend groups collide to form a brand new #squad, these five young Chicagoans begin to reevaluate their own identities as well as their relationships to each other. The series is based on the personal experiences and backgrounds of five of its creators.

 

The web series, Seeds, is also set to premiere soon. Centered around the friendship of four college-aged girls, Seeds is a bold and dynamic narrative that explores their conversations through a hilariously authentic lens. Season one follows Jade, Maya, Beth & Danielle navigating a perplexing relationship, a wayward text putting their friendship on rocky waters.  Our vision for Seeds was to create a show that offers a candid and hilarious look into the lives of young Black women as they transition from students to adults. The series will feature our four characters (Beth, Danielle, Jade and Mya), not as caricatures of themselves, but as three-dimensional characters speaking freely on the struggles they face as they discover who they are. Additionally, Seeds is a new media initiative that allows diverse women, both on and offscreen, to create content that is both relevant and necessary. We need Black women creators telling stories about Black women and that is exactly what Seeds accomplishes. In this watershed moment of Black entertainment and storytelling, Seeds offers a very honest look at our society from a perspective that is often overlooked,” said Deja Harrell, Seeds creator.