Small Screen: Holly Robinson Peete, Anthony Ramos, Go Hyun-jung & Bad Bunny Headline A Recent Flurry Of Casting Announcements

Adhir Kalyan - Alberto E. Rodriguez

Broadcast: CBS has ordered United States of Al, a multicamera comedy from David Goetsch and Maria Ferrari. The series follows the friendship between Marine veteran Riley, played by Parker Young, and “Al” Awalamir, played by Adhir Kalyan, a former Afghan interpreter who lays down new roots in the United States. In addition to Young and Kalyan, Kelli Goss, Dean Norris and Elizabeth Alderfer will also star in the upcoming series. Set to premier during the 2020-2021 season, the co-production from Warner Bros. Television and Chuck Lorre Productions features an executive producing slate composed of Goetsch, Ferrari, Chuck Lorre, Reza Aslan, Mahyad Tousi and Mark Cendrowski.

Two CW series, All American and Walker, recently made new casting additions for recurring roles. The football-focused sports drama All American has brought on Mike Merrill for its third season to star as talent director Christian Mosley. Merrill will make his All American debut with the series’ Season 3 premier on January 18. On Walker, a reboot of Walker, Texas Ranger, Chris Labadie will be joining the Jared Padalecki-starred series as Jordan, an ex-con involved in an operation to smuggle heroin, and a snarky rival to Padalecki’s righteous Cordell Walker. Coming from Rideback and CBS Studios, the Walker reboot reimagines the original series from Albert S. Ruddy and Leslie Greif by pairing Walker with a female partner while still maintaining the core elements of the original with its focus on distinguishing right from wrong and on finding common ground.

Sachal Tyagi is set to reprise his role as Pathak on Colors TV’s Choti Sarrdaani. Tyagi returns to the hit drama after his character was last seen being apprehended by the police when his political corruption was revealed by protagonist Meher, played by Nimrit Kaur Ahluwalia. With his return, Pathak targets Meher’s family in his quest for revenge. One of the biggest and most recent hits in Indian television, Choti Sarrdaani also stars Avinesh Rekhi and Kevina Tak.

Holly Robinson Peete has been cast in a recurring role for the fifth season of ABC’s American Housewife. As Tami, Peete stars as an old friend to Katie Otto, played by Katy Mixon, from before the Otto family’s move to Westport, Connecticut. Katie becomes elated at the possibility of reconnecting with her close friend when Tami and her husband- who now have an eight-year-old daughter after their two older children went off to college- move to Westport. Created by Sarah Dunn, American Housewife is a co-production between Kapital Entertainment and ABC Signature.

Anthony Ramos - David Crotty/Patrick McMullan

Cable: Anthony Ramos- known especially for his performance in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway smash hit Hamilton- has been confirmed to be joining HBO’s In Treatment in a recurring role. News of Ramos’ casting follows a recent announcement that the premium cable channel’s upcoming female-led fourth season reboot of the series would be helmed by Uzo Aduba, who will star as Dr. Brook Lawrence. As Eladio, Ramos will play one of Dr. Lawrence’s therapy patients and a home health aide who works privately for a wealthy family, tasked with caring for their adult son. Featuring a slate of executive producers that includes Stephen Levinson, Mark Wahlberg, Hagai Levi, Jennifer Shuur, Joshua Allen, Melissa Bernstein, Joanne Toll and Noa Tishby, In Treatment, which is currently in pre-production, comes from HBO Entertainment, Leverage, Closest to the Hole Productions and Sheleg.

Park In-hwan, Song Kang, Na Mun-hee and Hong Seung-hee are all set to star in tvN’s Like a Butterfly. The upcoming drama is a series adaptation of Hun and Ji Min’s popular webtoon of the same name that juxtaposes the story of Deok-chool, played by Park, a 70-year-old mailman who decides to go after his lifelong dream becoming a ballet dancer, with that of Kang’s Chae-rok, a 23-year-old professional ballet dancer who questions what he really wants out of life. Rounding out the leads are Park’s wife Hae-nam, played by Na, and granddaughter Eun-ho, played by Hong. Both women have spent their lives playing it safe until Deok-chool’s decision to pursue ballet changes things for them both, as Hae-nam’s desire to live a quiet life becomes suddenly unrealistic, and Eun-ho questions the pragmatic approach to life she was brought up to pursue after she meets Chae-rok. Slated for a 2021 premier, Like a Butterfly is written by Lee Eun-mi with direction from PD Han Dong-hwa.

1212 Entertainment has optioned the rights to develop a television adaptation of Renee Ahdieh’s 2015 New York Times-bestselling novel The Wrath and The Dawn. Weaving together a love story using elements of Middle Eastern, Chinese, Indian and North African legends, the fantasy novel follows protagonist Shahrzad’s mission to avenge her best friend’s murder by gaining the trust and affection of the Caliph, who she believes caused not only the death of her friend, but of countless other women as well. The deeper she finds herself in this disingenuous relationship, the cloudier her judgment becomes, as Shahrzad begins to question if she has misjudged the Caliph and his potential role in these women’s mysterious deaths. The upcoming adaptation will be developed by Hellcat’s Pippa Lambert alongside 1212 Entertainment’s Roberto Grande and Joshua Long. Lambert called Ahdieh’s novel a “magical retelling of Arabian Nights,” and expressed her excitement at The Wrath and The Dawn in being able to “bring the classic tales to a new global audience in a spectacular and contemporary way.”

Go Hyun-jung is set to star in Someone Like You, an upcoming drama from JTBC about two women’s intertwined yet diverging fates. Go’s Hee-joo is a social climber whose concentrated efforts to lift herself out of the poverty she lived through as a child lead her to an adulthood as a successful painter and essayist, the wife of a philanthropist and a mother to two children. Upon meeting the upcoming series’ opposite female lead- who has yet to be cast- Hee-joo will go through a nightmarish series of events that are beyond the suffering she experienced in her youth. Written by Yoo Bora and directed by PD Im Hyun-wook, Someone Like You is set for a 2021 premier.

Nne Ebong - Alberto E. Rodriguez

Streaming: Radicle Act, the production company of actor Don Cheadle, has signed a development deal with HBO Max for Max, a new dark comedy from Camilla Blackett. Executively produced by Cheadle and Mika Pryce in conjunction with Industrial Media, the series follows a Black millennial woman who tries to maintain the delicate balance between her professional and sex lives. Highlighting the unique focus of the upcoming series, Cheadle called its protagonist “a character we haven’t really seen before in the TV space,” that “exposes [viewers] to an unexplored world,” with Pryce categorizing Max as “boundary pushing content that adds dimension to how we see people who’ve been historically othered and whose complicated narratives are rarely put front and center.” Max adds to a heavy production slate for Radicle that already includes a series adaptation of A. Lee Martinez’s 2009 novel Monster, a film adaptation of B.B. Alston’s upcoming novel Amari and the Night Brothers and War, a series focused on the struggle for control in South Central Los Angeles.

Nne Ebong has joined Netflix to become its new Vice President of Overall Deals, Original Series, a new division established this past October by Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s Head of Global Television. The move to Netflix reunites the executive with close collaborator Shonda Rhimes, who she worked with on hit series such as Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder during their time together at ABC, where Ebong acted as the Head of Drama. Ebong comes to Netflix after spending the past two years as the Creative Lead for the CAA-affiliated studio wiip. 

New casting additions for the third season of Netflix’s Narcos: Mexico were recently announced, headlined by Luis Gerardo Méndez, Alberto Guerra, Luisa Rubino and Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio- better known by his stage name, Bad Bunny. Méndez’s Victor Tapia is a Juarez cop who teeters on the edge of morality as his curiosity in a string of murders conflicts with his ethical stance of not getting too involved in the mystery. As Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, Guerra plays a quiet, calculated drug trafficker who turns out to be more than meets the eye. Andrea Nuñez, played by Rubino, is a young and quixotic journalist who may be getting more than she bargained for in her quest to break the news on corruption. Rounding out the casting announcements is Bad Bunny’s guest role as Arturo “Kitty” Paez, a member of the “Narco Juniors” gang, made up of wealthy kids who are drawn to the seemingly glamorous and thrilling cartel life. Alejandro Furth, Lorenzo Ferro, José Zúñiga, Diego Calva, Kristen Lee Gutoskie and Beau Mirchoff will also join as series regulars, with Yessica Borroto, Damayanti Quintanar, Manuel Uriza and Markin López confirmed for guest roles. Produced by Gaumont, Narcos: Mexico is directed by Andrés Baiz, Alejandra Márquez Abella, Luis Ortega, Amat Escalante and Wagner Moura and is executively produced by Sidonie Dumas, Christophe Riandee, Nicolas Atlan, José Padilha, Doug Miro, Andrés Baiz, Carlo Bernard and Eric Newman, with Carlo Bernard serving as showrunner.

HBO Max has found its replacement for departing main star Anna Kendrick on Love Life, with William Jackson Harper taking on the starring role for Season 2 of the romcom anthology series. Love Life profiles the romantic journeys of its protagonists, from first love to last, and the impact of each partner on a person’s life and ultimate romantic destiny. The second season will focus on Harper’s character as he comes out of a long-term relationship with a woman that he had believed was going to be “the one” and tries to navigate a New York dating scene that he did not anticipate returning to. The Lionsgate Television-Feigco Entertainment co-production was created for HBO Max by co-showrunner Sam Boyd and is executively produced by Boyd, co-showrunner Bridget Bedard, Kendrick, Paul Feig and Dan Magnante.