Small Screen: Naveen Andrews Joins Fox’s ‘The Cleaning Lady’; Netflix Comedy ‘Blockbuster’ Gets Premiere Date; Oscar Winner Chloé Zhao Developing Vincent Chin Series
Naveen andrews - Axelle/Bauer-Griffin
Broadcast: Former Lost star Naveen Andrews has been cast in the second season of Fox’s The Cleaning Lady. Season 2 continues to follow Thony (Élodie Yung), a cleaning lady for Vegas club owner Arman (Adan Canto) as she tries to save her young son, who was just kidnapped by his father. Andrews, who was recently seen on the Hulu limited series The Dropout, will portray Robert Kamdar, the ex-lover of Arman’s wife Nadia (Eva De Dominici) who returns to win her back. Based on the Argentinian series La chica que limpia and developed for Warner Bros and Fox Entertainment by co-executive producers and showrunners Miranda Kwok and Melissa Carter, the new season of The Cleaning Lady will premiere September 19th.
Dewayne Perkins, an Emmy nominated-writer for The Amber Ruffin Show, will write and executive produce an animated series based on the Hasbro game Clue for Fox. Director Tim Story is also on board to executive produce with Lynn Barrie for The Story Company. The project is being produced by Hasbro’s eOne and Fox Entertainment-owned Bento Box Entertainment–while eOne will also produce a live-action feature film adaptation for 20th Century Studios.
Actor Demetrius Grosse has been cast in the upcoming ABC drama series Avalon. Based on a short story by Michael Connelly, Avalon stars Neve Campbell as an L.A. Sheriff’s Department detective trying to solve a mystery on Catalina Island. Grosse will play a senior deputy assigned to Catalina after being passed over for detective. The show is created and executive produced by David E. Kelley and Connelly for A+E Studios and 20th Television.
Gina Yashere has been promoted to showrunner for the CBS sitcom Bob Hearts Abishola alongside Matt Ross, joining co-creators All Higgins and Chuck Lorre. Yashere co-created the series about a middle-aged compression-sock businessman (Billy Gardell) who falls for the Nigerian nurse (Folake Olowofoyeku) that cares for him in the hospital after a heart attack along with Lorre, Higgins and Eddie Gorodetsky. Yashere also guest starred in the pilot as Abishola’s best friend Kemi and was then upped to series regular, while also serving as a writer and producer on the show. Bob Hearts Abishola’s fourth season premieres Monday September 19th.
CBS has announced that The Young And The Restless will commemorate its 50th anniversary starting September 30th. It will honor the last five decades of being on the air all season long until March 26th, the date of its first episode, and a few past cast members are expected to return to help celebrate.
Starting September 12th, Days Of Our Lives will air on Canada’s W Network, and it will be available to stream on STACKTV and the Global app, with a cable subscription to The W Network. The news follows the recent announcement that the soap opera would no longer air on NBC in the U.S. and would be moved to the streaming platform Peacock. W Network has been the Canadian home of Days of our Lives’ recent spin-off series Beyond Salem and A Very Salem Christmas.
Charles Babalola - Jeff Spicer / Stringer
Cable: The Outlaws’ Charles Babalola has been tapped to play the lead role in the Showtime series King Shaka. Produced by CBS Studios in conjunction with Propagate and Fuqua Films, the new drama follows a Zulu Nation man’s personal journey from a stigmatized childhood to becoming a legendary king. Also in the cast are Aïssa Maïga, Thando Diomo, Thapelo Mokoena, and Warren Masemola. The series, created by Olu Odebunmi and Tolu Awosika, starts shooting next month in South Africa and will premiere on Showtime in 2023.
Epix has added five new members to the cast of its contemporary horror sci-fi series From. Angela Moore (The Stand, Maid) and Nathan D. Simmons (Black Cop) join Kaelen Ohm, AJ Simmons, and Deborah Grover in the upcoming second season of the Harold Perrineau-led series. Season 2, currently in production in Halifax, Novia Scotia, sees the emergence of the nightmarish town in middle U.S.A.’s origins with arrival of a mysterious bus with the new cast members playing its passengers. Created and executive produced by Joh Griffin with Lost alums Jack Bender and Jeff Pinkner, From had Epix’s most viewed original series premiere in the network’s history.
Melissa Fumero and Randall Park - Blockbuster/Netflix
Streaming: Joy Bryant has been cast in the upcoming Disney+ series The Spiderwick Chronicles. Bryant, recently seen on Ballers and Good Girls Revolt, will play Helen Grace, a divorced mother of three who moves from their home in Brooklyn to her grandfather Arthur Spiderwick’s estate in Michigan where the teenagers are pulled into an alternate fantasy world. The show is based on the popular book series of the same name by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black and is produced by Paramount Television Studios and 20th Television for Disney+
The Marvel Studios’ Disney+ series Ironheart has added Regan Aliyah of XO and Kitty to its cast in an undisclosed role. In the series, Dominique Thorne plays genius inventor Riri Williams in a cast that includes Anthony Ramos, Manny Montana, Alden Ehrenreich, Shea Couleé, and Zoe Terakes. The character of Riri is said to be introduced to the MCU in the Black Panther sequel, whose director, Ryan Coogler, is among Ironheart’s executive producers along with head writer Chinaka Hodge, Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, and Zoie Nagelhout.
The upcoming multi-cam comedy from Netflix Survival Of The Thickest has added Disjointed’s Tone Bell and For Better Or Worse’s Tasha Smith to its cast. The show stars Michelle Buteau as plus-sized single Mavis Beaumont, with Bell playing her best friend Khalil and Smith playing self-made NYC millionaire Marley. Based on Buteau’s book of the same name, Survival Of The Thickest was created by Buteau and showrunner Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, with the first two episodes being directed by Never Have I Ever and Girls5Eva’s Linda Mendoza.
Netflix will drop all 10 half-hour episodes of its new comedy series Blockbuster starring Randall Park on November 3rd. Created by Vanessa Ramos, who also serves as executive producer and showrunner. The series stars Fresh Off The Boat’s Park as Timmy Yoon, manager of the last operating Blockbuster Video in the United States. Also in the cast are Melissa Fumero (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Tyler Alvarez (Never Have I Ever), Madeleine Arthur (Snowpiercer), and Olga Merediz (Encanto).
Timewasters creator Daniel Lawrence Taylor, who we recently reported is writing a drama for BBC Three about five underprivileged Black students who win scholarships to an elite British boarding school, has been cast in the Netflix series Kaos. The Greek mythology reimagining from Chernobyl producer Sister and Anthem stars Jeff Goldblum, Janet McTeer, David Thewlis, Aurora Perrineau Cliff Curtis, Killian Scott, Misia Butler, Leila Farzad, Nabhaan Rizwan, Rakie Ayola, and Stanley Townsend.
The HBO Max series Warrior is adding ten new faces to its third season, including Telly Leung and Sizo Mahlangu. Leung will reportedly play nomadic Chinese nightclub singer Marcel and Mahlangu plays Isaac, a notorious Barbary Coast gangster in the crime drama based on the writings of martial arts legend Bruce Lee.
HBO Max also announced that senior political correspondent and anchor of Inside Politics Sunday Abby Phillips will serve as a consultant on its upcoming political series The Girl On The Bus. This Is Us actor Brandon Scott has also been cast as a series regular, playing the press secretary to the presidential front-runner in the series inspired by a chapter in Amy Chozick’s book Chasing Hillary. Written by Chozick and Julie Plec, the show follows competing female journalists covering a presidential campaign.
Cathy Tyson, the BAFTA-winning star of 2022’s Help has joined the cast of the Apple TV+ UK drama series Criminal Record. Tyson joins stars Peter Capaldi and Cush Jumbo, who play detectives who must revisit an old case after receiving an anonymous phone call. Dionne Brown, Stephen Campbell Moore, Charlie Creed-Miles, Shaun Dooley, Aysha Kala, Tom Moutchi, and Zoë Wanamaker round out the rest of the cast.
Ashvin Luximon - Ken McKay/Shutterstock
Industry: FX has hired HBO Max’s former vice president of original programming, and drama Chika Chukudebelu Igwilo as their new senior vice president of development. Chukudebelu Igwilo, who oversaw the development of HBO Max shows The Flight Attendant, the reboot of Gossip Girl, and DC’s Peacemaker will report to Gina Balian and Nick Grad, co-presidents of original programming at FX.
L.A.-based production company Participant is developing a limited series about murder victim Vincent Chin that will be executive produced by Oscar-winner Chloé Zhao. The project will be written by Christopher Radcliff (The Strange Ones) and directed by Kogonado (After Yang). Vincent Chin was a Chinese American engineer murdered in 1982, four days before his wedding, by two disgruntled white autoworkers who assumed Chin was of Japanese descent and blamed him for Japan’s success in the automotive world for stealing their jobs. His murder was a turning point in the Asian American civil rights movement, sparking outrage nationwide. Made with the help of the Chin estate and executor Helen Zia, the project is also executive produced by Vicangelo Bulluck, Paula Madison, and Donald Young, as well as Participant Jeff Skoll and Miura Kite.
Ashvin Luximon, who appeared on the long-running British soap opera EastEnders, died suddenly at age 38 from an aneurysm. Luximon played Asif Malik on the soap from 1999-2003, appearing in 146 episodes.