Basketball Wives star Tami Roman has netted a key series regular role alongside Octavia Spencer in Apple’s upcoming thriller series Are You Sleeping?
She joins other black series regulars Ron Cephas Jones, Mekhi Phifer, Haneefah Wood and Tracie Thoms, as well as Aaron Paul, Elizabeth Perkins and Michael Beach.
Nic Bishop, Annabella Sciorra and Molly Hagan are recurring.
The show, which hails from Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, Peter Chernin’s Chernin Entertainment and Endeavor Content, is created and written by Nichelle Tramble Spellman and based on the true-crime novel by Kathleen Barber, which focuses on the country’s obsession with true-crime podcasts and critiques the reality of when “the pursuit of justice is placed on a public stage.”
Spencer leads the show as Poppy Parnell, an investigative reporter who searches for the truth behind a decades-old murder verdict via her podcast.
Roman will play Lillian Scoville, Poppy’s “saucy stepmother.”
The novel’s description reads: “Serial meets Ruth Ware’s In a Dark, Dark Wood in this inventive and twisty psychological thriller about a mega-hit podcast that reopens a murder case—and threatens to unravel the carefully constructed life of the victim’s daughter.”
Sarah Koenig, the host, creator and producer of the true-crime podcast Serial, considered the staple true crime podcast and a major fuel behind the recent wave of true crime obsession, will be a consultant on the series. Witherspoon, Spencer, Spellman, Lauren Neustadter, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Kristen Campo are executive producing.
Are You Sleeping is the first series to land at Apple for development. It also has in the works a morning news show drama from Witherspoon, starring herself and Jennifer Aniston, an Amazing Stories anthology series and a space drama from Ron Moore. Other than Are You Sleeping and the morning news show drama, Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine is also producing a thriller starring Zendaya as Anita Hemings, the first woman to graduate from Vassar College, who passed as white to attend.
A full description of the book Are You Sleeping is below:
Josie Buhrman has spent the last ten years trying to escape her family’s reputation and with good reason. After her father’s murder thirteen years prior, her mother ran away to join a cult and her twin sister Lanie, once Josie’s closest friend and confidant, unimaginably betrayed her. Now, Josie has finally put down roots in New York, settling into domestic life with her partner Caleb, and that’s where she intends to stay. The only problem is that she has lied to Caleb about every detail of her past—starting with her last name. When investigative reporter Poppy Parnell sets off a media firestorm with a mega-hit podcast that reopens the long-closed case of Josie’s father’s murder, Josie’s world begins to unravel. Meanwhile, the unexpected death of Josie’s long-absent mother forces her to return to her Midwestern hometown where she must confront the demons from her past—and the lies on which she has staked her future.
Primarily a reality television star in The Real World and Basketball Wives franchises, for years Roman has made guest appearances on several series. She broke out with her first significant role in a recurring capacity on CBS’ Moonlight from 2007-2008. She was later a lead in the TV One sitcom Belle’s and had a recurring role in the Halle Berry CBS sci-fi drama Extant. Most recently, she starred in TV One’s movie When Love Kills: The Falicia Blakely Story. She’s also set for the upcoming films Prison Logic and The Family Business.
Deadline first reported her casting.
