Small Screen: Ncuti Gatwa is the new Doctor Who; Leslie Jones to star in new adult animated series; Lupita Nyong'o exits 'Lady In The Lake'
Ncuti Gatwa - Samir Hussein
Broadcast: It was announced that 29-year-old Scottish actor Ncuti Gatwa will officially become the first person of color to portray the titular Doctor on the BBC’s long-running sci-fi series Doctor Who. The Rwandan-born Gatwa will take over the role from the series’ first female Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, in 2023 at the same time that Russell T. Davies, who left the show in 2009, returns as showrunner. Gatwa is known for his award-winning portrayal of Eric on the popular Netflix show Sex Education. The actor said in a recent interview with BBC News: ”It feels really amazing. It's a true honor. This role is an institution and it's so iconic.” Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s chief content officer, described Ncuti Gatwa as having “incredible dynamism” as well as being “a striking and fearless young actor whose talent and energy will set the world alight and take Doctor Who on extraordinary adventures under Russell T Davies' new era.”
SNL alum Finesse Mitchell is developing a new multi-cam comedy with veteran television writer Warren Hutcherson for Fox. The two will also executive produce, alongside Rick Dorfman for Authentic Talent & Literary Productions, and Mitchell will star in the vehicle titled I Gotta Ask My Wife, based on Mitchell’s stand up material. Mitchell, who was recently seen on NBC’s Kenan and the short-lived Outmatched on Fox, is also currently working on his fourth comedy special, the follow up to 2018’s The Spirit Told Me To Tell You.
The Flight Attendant’s Yasha Jackson will star opposite Michaela McManus (SEAL Team, Law and Order: SVU) on a new procedural pilot for ABC set within the United States’ National Park Service. Both actresses will play ISB (Investigative Services) agents tasked with solving a murder that takes place in California’s Yosemite National Park. The pilot is being written and produced by Rashad Raisani, who was an executive producer on USA’s Burn Notice and Fox’s 9-1-1: Lone Star. Jackson, whose other television appearances include Black Mirror and The Bold Type, is set to play the character of Tiffany, “a brassy, funny Park Service Agent, a helicopter pilot and Audrey’s (McManus) close friend. Proud to be queer, Tiffany always says exactly what she means and she enjoys taking self-important bureaucrats down a peg or two.”
Tanya Saracho - Myung Chun
Cable: Broadway and television star Okieriete Onaodowan has been cast as the lead in AMC’s upcoming six-episode, half-hour series Demascus. Onaodowan, best known for originating the roles of Hercules Mulligan and James Madison in the Tony Award-winning Hamilton, will portray Demascus, described as “a 33-year-old Black man who goes on a journey of self-discovery using an innovative new technology that allows him to experience different versions of his own life.” The series, debuting next year on AMC and its streaming service AMC+, will be executive produced by Mark Johnson (Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad), Kirk Moore (American Crime, For Life), and the show’s creator, Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm (Boomerang).
Actress and comedian Leslie Jones will produce and star as “Plastic” in an adult animated comedy series currently being developed at Warner Bros. Animation. No other details of the show have been released but it is reportedly not connected to the Plastic Man female-led movie that was in the works from writer Cat Vasko back in 2020. The former SNL cast member recently appeared as Spanish Jackie in the HBO Max hit series Our Flag Means Death and she is currently the host of the ABC reboot of Supermarket Sweep. Although the show does not have a network home yet, Warner Bros Animation already has a number of adult animated comedies on HBO Max, including the DC series Harley Quinn.
Tanya Saracho, the Mexican-American creator of the series Vida, is developing a new half-hour drama for Starz called Lovesong. The new series, set in East London’s music scene, is about two Mexican-American childhood friends involved in a love triangle with a singer-songwriter. The music will be composed by English musician and actor Johnny Flynn, who will co-executive produce alongside Saracho and Ojalá Productions’ Christine Dávila. In the article, Saracho was quoted as saying “It’s wonderful to be coming home to Starz to conceive of my new story of love, a place that truly nurtured and supported me while I crafted the love story of the two Hernandez sisters in Vida, and I couldn’t be happier to return to bring this new narrative to life.” Saracho is one of the speakers at this year’s Starz’ #TakeTheLead summit, an inclusion initiative launched by the network in 2021 that puts the focus on women and underrepresented audiences.
Alicia Hannah-Kim - Jeff Kravitz
Streaming: Lesley-Ann Brandt (Spartacus, Lucifer), is joining the Hulu pilot of a musical drama series adaption of the Richard Mason novel History Of A Pleasure Seeker, produced by ABC Signature in association with Freemantle (American Gods, The Mosquito Coast) and Hat Trick Productions, the British production company behind Showtime’s Episodes and Anna Paquin’s Flack. Set in Amsterdam in 1907, the project centers on a young man named Piet Barol, as he applies for the job of the tutor to Egbert, a 10-year-old boy who has refused to leave his family’s house for the last two years. Brandt will play Egbert’s mother, the beautiful and powerful Jacobina, in a cast that includes Carla Woodcock, Callum Kerr, Olumide Olorunfemi, and Bebe Bettencourt. Brandt was born in Cape Town, South Africa but later moved to Auckland, New Zealand where she began her acting career with her role as Leilani Fa’auigaese in the series Diplomatic Immunity in 2009, but she’s most known for playing the demon Mazikeen for all six seasons of Lucifer.
Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o has left Lady In The Lake, a limited series adaptation from Endeavor Content currently in production for Apple TV+. Nyong’o had been set to play opposite star and executive producer Natalie Portman, who portrays 1960’s Baltimore housewife and mother-turned investigative journalist Maddie Schwartz. This is the second time in the past two years that Nyong’o has dropped out of a prominent TV role. In 2020, she was forced to exit an adaptation of the Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie novel Americanah at HBO Max due to scheduling issues caused by the pandemic.
The sci-fi animated comedy The Hospital has been picked up for two seasons by Amazon. The show is created by Cirocco Dunlap (Big Mouth, Miracle Workers), who also serves as writer, executive producer, and showrunner. The stellar voiceover cast includes Emmy winner Maya Rudolph and Russian Doll star Natasha Lyonne (who both also executive produce under their Animal Pictures banner), as well as Keke Palmer, Greta Lee, Kieran Culkin, and singer Sam Smith. The show was first reported as being in development in 2020 and follows two renowned alien surgeons named Sleech (voiced by Lee) and Klak (voiced by Palmer). Said Dunlap, “Working with Animal Pictures, Amazon Studios, and Titmouse to create a show that prominently features unsexy alien sex has been one of the best experiences of my life.”
Jane The Virgin star Gina Rodriguez and actor Xolo Maridueña of Cobra Kai have joined the cast of Warner Bros. Animation’s first DC/Batman Cartoonito preschooler animated series Batwheels, which is set to hit HBO Max and Cartoon Network this fall. The show’s characters are made up of both classic Batman villains and the new Legion of Zoom, a team of sentient vehicles brought to computerized life by Badcomputer, the new ultimate computer of the DC Universe. Rodriguez plays Catwoman while Maridueña plays Mr. Freeze’s Snowy the Snowcrawler. Joining them is SpongeBob SquarePants himself, voice actor Tom Kenny, who plays Crash, Badcomputer’s robotic minion. The series was created by Michael G. Stern (Doc McStuffins) and Sam Register (Teen Titans), who also serve as co-executive producers.
Speaking of Cobra Kai, the hit Netflix show has added actress Alicia Hannah-Kim, currently of the HBO Max show Minx, to Season 5 as South Korean sensei Kim Da-Eun. The show has also upgraded actor Dallas Dupree Young, who joined last season as Kenny Payne, to series regular. Co-creator Jon Hurwitz recently said about Season 5 “There’s a lot of insanity; if you’re a fan of the franchise, maybe some familiar faces show up, maybe not; there’s going to be a lot of karate.” Added co-creator Josh Heald “there’s lot of people punching each other, kicking other, but the story is going to go in a new way that no one can possibly predict.”
Sundeep ‘Sunny’ Paidipally
Industry: It was announced that Sundeep ‘Sunny’ Paidipally has been promoted to the head of data science at media consulting and technology business Audience Precision. Paidipally started at the company in 2016 as a data analyst and will now report to CEO Haydon Bray in his new role as the leader of the business’ data science team. Audience Precision has also appointed a new research co-ordinator, Vaibhavi Deshpnde, who joins the business from the University of Sydney, where she obtained a Masters in Research – Digital Communication and Media/Multimedia.
Gina Reyes, who’s previously worked for Salma Hayek’s production company, Ventanazul, 20th Century Fox Television and Fox Broadcasting, and Verve Talent & Literary Agency, has now joined UTA as an Agent in the Television Literary division. Notably, Reyes developed and oversaw the first all-female directors initiative, the Fox TV Directors Lab, and also oversaw the Fox Writers Lab, where she drove the staffing of female and diverse voices on scripted series. She will be based in Los Angeles and will report to Partners & Co-Heads of TV Literary, Dan Erlij, and Allan Haldeman, both of whom said of Reyes “Throughout her career, Gina has worked to uplift and champion unique and important storytellers. She has helped identify and amplify the next generation of creative talent and we look forward to seeing the great things she will accomplish at UTA.”