Casting News - October 25, 2018
Apple's Untitled Jennifer Aniston/Reese Witherspoon Drama; The CW's Roswell, New Mexico; Netflix's Daybreak; and OWN's David Makes Man.
APPLE's UNTITLED JENNIFER ANISTON & REESE WITHERSPOON DRAMA
- Billy Crudup and Gugu Mbatha-Raw will co-star on the upcoming drama starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell. Crudup won a Tony Award for his performance in The Coast of Utopia. He also starred in Netflix's one-season drama Gypsy. Mbatha-Raw starred in the "San Junipero" episode of Netflix's Black Mirror. Her film credits include Belle, Beyond the Lights and A Wrinkle in Time.
- Crudup will play Cory Ellison, the forward-thinking president of the news division at the network.
- Mbatha-Raw will play Hannah Shoenfeld, the whip-smart and charming head booker of talent.
OWN's DAVID MAKES MAN
- Lela Rochon, Trace Lysette, Liza Colon-Zayas, Juanita Jennings, Lindsey Blackwell, Solomon Valdez, Teshi Thomas, Nick Creegan, Kimaya Naomi and Logan Rozos have been cast in recurring roles on the upcoming drama starring Phylicia Rashad and Akili McDowell.
- Rochon (Training Day) will play Alma, Gloria's (Alana Arenas) estranged mother.
- Lysette (Transparent) will play Femi, a protective den mother to troubled adolescents.
- Colon-Zayas will play Principal Fallow, who runs the magnet school that David (McDowell), Seren (Nathaniel Logan McIntyre) and Marissa attend.
- Jennings will play Mrs. Hertrude, the resident building manager.
- Blackwell will play Marissa, David and Seren's friend and classmate.
- Valdez will play Willie Derrick, an 11-year-old wannabe dope dealer.
- Thomas will play Tare, a neighborhood girl who also lives in The Ville with David.
- Creegan will play Desmond, the second-in-command to Teo Kimaya (Elvis Nolasco).
- Naomi will play Shella, a younger friend of Tare's who also lives in The Ville.
- Rozos will play Star Child, a quiet but direct boy who goes to live with Ms. Elijah (Travis Coles).
THE CW's ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO
- Claudia Black has booked a recurring role on the upcoming drama starring Jeanine Mason and Nathan Parsons. She previously recurred on The CW's The Originals and starred in The CW's one-season drama Containment.
- She will play Ann Evans, Max (Parsons) and Isobel's (Lily Cowles) adoptive mother. Polished and warm-hearted, she blames herself for not being able to connect with her children. However, she doesn't realize that Max and Isobel have been keeping a massive secret from her all their lives.
NETFLIX's DAYBREAK
- Colin Ford, Alyvia Alyn Lind, Sophie Simnett, Austin Crute, Gregory Kasyan, Krysta Rodriguez, Cody Kearsley and Jeante Godlock have joined the cast of the upcoming dramedy starring Matthew Broderick.
- Ford (We Bought a Zoo) will play Josh Wheeler, an ordinary kid who learns he's not so ordinary after all when the bombs drop. The apocalypse is the best thing that ever happened to him. He can finally be the hero he read about in comic books. His search for his lost love leads him to become a reluctant leader of a tribe of outliers and misfits.
- Lind (Coat of Many Colors) will play Angelia, a precocious and abrasive pyromaniac. She is a pain in the ass who Josh accidentally saves from a bloodthirsty gang when he mistakes her screams for Sam's. She begs Josh and Wesley to let her team up with them, and her flair for making Molotov cocktails starts to come in very handy.
- Simnett (Poldark) will play Sam Dean, a soulful, radiant girl who is outgoing and well-liked by everyone she meets - particularly Josh, who is smitten with her at first sight. Their budding romance is literally nuked when atomic bombs decimate civilization.
- Crute (Atlanta) will play Wesley Fists, a football star with budding movie star looks and a penchant for swords. He was part of a system that ostracized and terrorized the students beneath him on the social totem pole (like Josh). But when Josh and Wesley meet once again in the apocalypse, Wesley is trying to follow the path of Eastern enlightenment and non-violence.
- Kasyan (The Brave) will play Eli Cardashyan, one of the have-nots in high school. In the apocalypse, he has barricaded himself inside the mall and now he has everything he could possibly want - every brand-name sneaker, every iPhone (never mind that there's no service anymore) and gifts galore for his (possibly imaginary) girlfriend.
- Rodriguez (Trial & Error) will play Ms. Crumble, the high school biology teacher and one of the only adults known to have survived the bomb. Something's very wrong with her brain, but she's a subject of great fascination for Angelica.
- Kearsley (Riverdale) will play Turbo Bro Jock, a fierce, handsome football player with a terrifyingly stoic manner. He has assembled all the athletic teen teams of Glendale into one, big murderous crew, and he's the team captain. When Josh and his tiny gang outsmart his peeps, decimating their ranks, Turbo is determined to track his adversaries down and do his worst.
- Godlock (The Simone Biles Story) will play Mona Lisa, a tough female athlete who got her nickname because she never smiles. She's a member of Turbo's brutal team of jocks and his closest consigliere.
