Small Screen: NBC Orders Scripts For New Jesse L. Martin Pilot; Issa Rae’s ‘Rap Sh!t’ Gets Second Season; Ke Huy Quan Joins ‘Loki’ Cast
Jesse L. Martin - Gary Gershoff
Broadcast: It was reported that NBC has ordered backup scripts for the off-cycle drama pilot The Irrational starring Law & Order alum Jesse L. Martin. The pilot, as well as Martin’s performance, are rumored to have been well received and a pickup decision about the pilot is expected in late October.
Darien Sills-Evans (Superior Donuts) and C.S. Lee (Dexter) have been tapped for the new CBS drama East New York. The series stars Amanda Warren as the newly promoted deputy inspector of an impoverished, working-class neighborhood at the eastern edge of Brooklyn. Sills-Evans will play a councilman native to East New York, Deputy Mayor Raymond Sharpe, and Lee will portray Desk Sergent Jimmy Kee. Other cast members include Jimmy Smits, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Richard Kind, Olivia Luccardi, Lavel Schley, and the also newly cast Caitlin Mehner. The show is co-written by William Finkelstein and Mike Flynn and directed by Mike Robin.
Jamaal Avery Jr. - Image Group LA
Cable: New names have been added to the cast of Andy Samberg’s upcoming adult animated series for Comedy Central including SNL alum Tim Meadows and his Brooklyn Nine-Nine costar Melissa Fumero. The two join The Lonely Island’s Samberg, Tim Robinson, Mitra Jouhari, Dale Soules, and Guz Khan on Digman!, a series set in a world where archaeologists are the most famous people on the planet. It was created by Samberg and Neil Campbell who also serves as showrunner, and is produced by CBS Studios with Ali Bell and The Lonely Island’s Party Over Here banner.
Jamaal Avery Jr. (Abbott Elementary) has been cast in the animated Star Wars series Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures for Disney Junior. Disney Branded Television President Ayo Davis announced that Avery would lead the cast with Luca’s Emma Berman at the recent D23 Expo. He plays a Jedi Youngling named Kai Brightstar who teams up with a pilot (Berman) on adventures while he trains to be a Jedi Knight. The show produced by Lucasfilm will premiere in 2023 on Disney Junior and Disney Plus.
Ke Huy Quan - Joshua Blanchard / Stringer
Streaming: Issa Rae’s new comedy Rap Sh!t has been renewed for a second season. The HBO Max series, which just concluded its first season, stars Aida Osman and KaMillion as two estranged high school friends who reconnect years later and start a rap duo. Other cast members include Jonica Booth, Devon Terrell, and RJ Cyler. Rap Sh!t is executive produced by Rae, showrunner Syreeta Singleton, Montrel McKay, Jonathan Berry, and Dave Becky, along with Yung Miami and JT of City Girls, Kevin “Coach K” Lee, Pierre “P” Thomas, and Sara Rastogi.
The trailer for the new animated series from rapper Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi and Black-ish’s Kenya Barris has been released. Entergalactic stars Mescudi as the voice of a young artist named Jabari who moves into his dream New York apartment and meets his photographer neighbor voiced by Jessica Williams. Also featured in the cast are Timothée Chalamet, Ty Dolla $ign, Laura Harrier, Vanessa Hudgens, Christopher Abbott, 070 Shake, Jaden Smith, Keith David, Teyana Taylor, Arturo Castro and Macaulay Culkin.
Everything, Everywhere All At Once star Ke Huy Quan has joined the second season of the Marvel series Loki. The former child star of Goonies and Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom was announced at D23 by Kevin Feige to be appearing with Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino, Wunmi Mosaku, Richard E. Grant, and newcomer Rafael Casal in the MCU’s Time Variance Authority-set series, written by Eric Martin and produced by Hiddleston and season one writer/showrunner Michael Waldron.
In other Marvel series news, Rashida “Sheedz” Olayiwola is joining the Ironheart cast in an undisclosed role. The comedian and actress who is currently a staff writer on the HBO Max series South Side joins star Dominique Thorne, Anthony Ramos, Shakira Barrera, Manny Montana, Alden Ehrenreich, Regan Aliyah, Shea Couleé, and Zoe Terakes in the six-episode series created by Chinaka Hodge. Ironheart focuses on a young genius inventor named Riri Williams (Thorne) who creates an Iron Man-like suit of armor, a character who will supposedly be introduced in Ryan Coogler’s upcoming Black Panther sequel.
Disney Plus’ series adaption of The Spiderwick Chronicles has added Mychala Lee (Truth Be Told) to its cast. Lee will play Mallory, the older sibling of twin brothers (Lyon Daniels, Noah Cotrell) whose mother (Joy Bryant) moves them from their home in New York to Michigan to live in her grandfather’s estate. The Spiderwick Chronicles is being produced for Disney Branded Television by Paramount Television Studios and 20th Television. Kat Coiro will direct the first two episodes and will also executive produce alongside showrunner Aron Coleite, writers Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, D.J. Goldberg, Julie Kane-Ritsch, and Grace Gilroy.
The Good Place star Manny Jacinto is hopping on board Leslye Headland’s The Acolyte. Jacinto joins Amandla Stenberg, Jodie Turner-Smith, and recent Emmy winner Lee Jung-jae in the upcoming Star Wars mystery-thriller series set during the final days of the High Republic era. No character or plot details have been revealed since the project was announced back in December of 2020.
Former Bridgerton star Regé-Jean Page will star in a new series inspired by the classic western Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid for Amazon. Executive produced by Joe and Anthony Russo with Kaz and Ryan Firpo writing the script, the show will have Page portraying Butch Cassidy opposite Top Gun: Maverick’s Glen Powell as The Sundance Kid. Page and Powell will also exec produce.
Westworld and Love Actually actor Rodrigo Santoro has been cast opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in the upcoming Paramount Plus series Wolf Pack. Currently in production and slated to premiere later this year, the series is based on the books by Edo Van Belkom about two teenagers whose lives are changed when a California wildfire awakens a supernatural creature. Adapted by Jeff Davis, Wolf Pack also features Armani Jackson, Bella Shepard, Chloe Rose Robertson and Tyler Lawrence Gray. Santoro plays the teens’ adoptive father, a park ranger who found his children in another wildfire years earlier.
The trailer for the third season of the Hulu series Ramy was released and it reveals that Bella Hadid will be playing Lena, the Muslim girlfriend of Ramy’s friend Steve (Steve Way). Premiering September 30th, season three continues to follow Egyptian-American millennial Ramy (played by the creator, writer, director, and executive producer Ramy Youseff) on his spiritual journey as he questions the existence of God and his Muslim faith while running a diamond business with his uncle, while his friend Steve starts dating Lena, a girl he met on a dating app called Muslim Match. The cast of the A24 series also includes Laith Nakli, Hiam Abbass, Amr Waked, May Calamawy, Dave Merheje, and Mohammed Amer.
Pooja Midha
Industry: The co-creator and star of the recently canceled Showtime series Flatbush Misdemeanor’s Kevin Iso has signed with Artists First for management. The show starred Iso and Dan Perlman and recently aired its season two finale on August 21st.
Russian Doll Star Charlie Barnett has officially signed with Stagecoach Entertainment for management. The actor has appeared in a number of series including Chicago Fire and Ordinary Joe for NBC and Tales of the City, You, and Special for Netflix.
Jáde Osiberu, the creator/producer of Nigerian shows Isoken and Gidi Up, has signed an overall deal to create content for Amazon. The three-year deal includes original scripted dramas and features from Osiberu’s production company Greoh Studios and is similar to international agreements signed by other creators such as Steve McQueen, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Jenny Han.
It was announced that Pooja Midha, the former president of the advertising technology company true[X], will be replacing James Rooke as the executive vice president and general manager for the ad-sales division of Comcast’s large cable operation, Effectv. Rooke was recently named president of Comcast Advertising, and now Midha moves into his role as overseer of the national team that manages everything from sales to data innovation. Acceding to Rooke, “Pooja is the right leader for Effectv at this time, especially as the company continues its transformation within the rapidly changing television landscape.”
eOne is creating a new series about a Korean family immigrating to the U.S. Director Jee-Woon Kim (I Saw The Devil) and Star Trek: Discovery writers Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt will develop the series, with the writers also serving as showrunners and Jee-Woon Kim executive producing with Korean production company Anthology Studios’ Jay Choi and Song Kang-Ho, and EnterMedia Content’s Sebastian Lee and David Kim.
There was a recent report on the trend of Black women immersing themselves in the world of Korean drama on streaming platforms. The paper interviewed a number of Black female subjects who were tuning into K dramas and learning about Korean culture long before Squid Game became one of the most popular shows in Netflix history. For them, these series not only provided comfort and escapism, but also “a way for me to see a different world and become more educated about different cultures as a Black woman” as Michea Hayden described her discovery of the South Korean TV series Secret Garden when she was 13. While an official study has not been done, the rise of Black viewership within Korean entertainment has been duly noted thanks to digital access and social media, allowing fans to form networks and cross-cultural connections. While the specifics of how and why these women relate to Korean dramas may not be universal, most Black women seem to agree that the biggest draw is “seeing love stories between people of color, devoid of the racial politics and baggage.”