Casting News - February 5, 2019
CBS' MacGyver; CBS All Access' Interrogation; Freeform's Besties; Netflix's Locke & Key; Showtime's The Loudest Voice; and Starz's Hightown.
FREEFORM's BESTIES
- Jordin Sparks, Matt Shively and Brooks Brantly will star in the upcoming comedy created by Ranada Shepard, Casey Johnson and David Windsor. Sparks won the sixth season of FOX's American Idol. She also starred in the 2012 film Sparkle. Shively starred for two seasons in ABC's The Real O'Neals - which was created by Johnson and Windsor. Brantly is a relative newcomer.
- Sparks will play Becca, an ambitious overachiever from a hard-working, conservative African-American family, who learns that her birth mother is actually white.
- Shively will play Matt, a former athlete and current bar manager, who can't completely let go of his glory days.
- Brantly will play Todd, Becca's brother, a mama's boy who still lives in their parent's basement.
CBS ALL ACCESS' INTERROGATION
- Kyle Gallner will play the young lead of the upcoming drama starring Peter Sarsgaard and David Strathairn. He previously starred for two seasons in WGN America's Outsiders.
- He will play a young man accused and convicted of murder his mother. After his conviction, he spends more than two decades trying to prove his innocence. Gallner will play the same character across 30 years of his life.
CBS' MACGYVER
- Levy Tran has booked a major recurring role on the drama's third season. She has previously had recurring roles on Showtime's Shameless and Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House.
- She will play Desiree Nguyen, who joins the Phoenix Foundation to MacGyver (Lucas Till) and his team on their global missions. Her addition will help fill the void left by the departure of series star George Eads.
SHOWTIME's THE LOUDEST VOICE
- Barry Watson has landed a recurring role on the upcoming limited series starring Russell Crowe. He previously starred for seven seasons in The WB's 7th Heaven and one season in Up's Date My Dad.
- He will play Lachlan Murdoch, the son of Rupert Murdoch and the heir apparent to his media empire. Educated, polite and business savvy, he is not in agreement with Roger Ailes' (Crowe) managerial practices.
STARZ's HIGHTOWN
- Shane Harper and Atkins Estimond have joined the cast of the upcoming drama starring Monica Raymund. Furthermore, Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Rachel Morrison - who worked on the films Mudbound and Black Panther - has signed on to direct the premiere. Harper previously starred in MTV's one-season comedy Happyland. Estimond has previously recurred on AMC's Lodge 49 and FOX's The Resident.
- Harper will play Junior, the son of a Cape Cod fisherman who's 90 day clean, but as he tries to stay sober, he engages in illegal activity to earn enough money to reunite with his girlfriend and their baby.
- Estimond will play Osito, a hardened gangster who has a soft spot for Junior and cultivates a relationship with his soldier-in-training.
NETFLIX's LOCKE & KEY
- Petrice Jones will co-star on the upcoming drama based on Joe Hill's comic. He currently stars in YouTube Premium's Step Up: High Water, which returns for its second season in March 2019.
- He will play Scot, a massive horror movie nerd and the ringleader of the "Savini Squad" - a group of teen misfits named for famed special effects artist Tom Savini. He becomes Kinsey Locke's (Emilia Jones) first friend at the Academy.
