Casting News - December 17, 2019
Amazon's Homecoming & Lord of the Rings; CBS All Access' The Good Fight; HBO Max's Americanah; Netflix's The Crew & Firefly Lane; and Peacock's Saved by the Bell.
HBO MAX's AMERICANAH
- Zackary Momoh will play the male lead opposite Lupita Nyong'o in the upcoming limited series developed by Danai Gurira. He starred in the 2019 films Harriet and Doctor Sleep. He also appeared in the Netflix limited series Seven Seconds and next stars in HBO's upcoming drama The Nevers created by Joss Whedon.
- He will play Obinze, a classmate of Ifemelu's (Nyong'o) who falls in love with her when they're both teenagers. Living a military-ruled country, they each depart for the west. Ifemelu heads for America, where she finds academic success, but is forced to grapple for the first time with what it means to be black. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous undocumented life in London.
NETFLIX's THE CREW
- Gary Anthony Williams, Dan Ahdoot, Freddie Stroma, Sarah Stiles and Jillian Mueller will co-star on the upcoming comedy starring Kevin James. Williams currently recurs on FOX's Bless the Harts and TruTV's I'm Sorry. Ahdoot starred for four seasons in Seeso's Bajillion Dollar Propertie$. Stroma starred for one season in Lifetime's UnREAL. Stiles has recurred on Epix's Get Shorty and Showtime's Billions. Mueller appeared on Broadway in Pretty Woman: The Musical.
- Williams will play Chuck, who is highly suspicious of technology and has it in for the team's driver, who seems to always be crashing his beautiful cars. His new boss would love to put him out to pasture, but not many people can get a car running in the middle of the race with a roll of duct tape and a hammer.
- Ahdoot will play Amir, who is a worrier and having a new boss doesn't help that. He won't admit it to Kevin (James), but he secretly loves the new technology that's creeping its way into the organization. All his classmates went to Silicon Valley and became billionaires. He claims not to be bitter about it. He's so bitter about it.
- Stroma will play Jake, the driver of the team for the last five years. He's charismatic, but far from a genius. He doesn't know what makes the car go, but knows how to make it go. His attitude on the track and in life is simple: crash or win.
- Stiles will play Beth, who is rabidly loyal to Kevin. She and Kevin probably should have started dating fifteen years ago, but they didn't, and now it's too late. Because of this, she's as protective about his love life as she is about his work life: she has high standards for him, and no one better screw him over.
- Mueller will play Catherine, who inherits a NASCAR team from her father. She grew up around racing, but she's a millennial who memorized Moneyball and is sure that the only way this team survives is to modernize. She's a woman in a man's world, so she has to be tough, even when that's not her first instinct.
CBS ALL ACCESS' THE GOOD FIGHT
- John Larroquette has joined the cast of the drama's upcoming fourth season. He is a five-time Emmy Award winner for his supporting role in NBC's Night Court and his guest role in ABC's The Practice. He won a Tony Award in 2011 for the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
- He will play Gavin Firth, a partner at a powerful multi-national firm who is warm, generous, sophisticated and potentially deadly.
AMAZON's HOMECOMING
- Joan Cusack and Mary Holland have landed recurring roles on the drama's upcoming second season starring Janelle Monáe and Chris Cooper. Cusack won an Emmy Award in 2015 for her guest role in Showtime's Shameless. She has also received Academy Award nominations for the films Working Girl and In & Out. Holland starred for two seasons in Starz's Blunt Talk and has recurred on HBO's Veep.
- Cusack will play Francine Bunda, an Army officer with an unconventional approach to the job.
- Holland will play Wendy, an ambitious executive in Geist's R&D department.
NETFLIX's FIREFLY LANE
- Patrick Sabongui and Brendan Taylor have booked recurring roles on the upcoming drama starring Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke. Sabongui has previously recurred on Showtime's Homeland, USA's Shooter and The CW's The Flash. Taylor has recurred on The CW's Supernatural, Syfy's The Magicians and E!'s The Arrangement.
- Sabongui will play Chad Wiley, a former journalist, now a college professor, who falls into a forbidden relationship with Tully Hart (Heigl), a promising young journalism student in the 1980s.
- Taylor will play Mutt, a 1980s TV news cameraman who pines for his co-worker Kate Mularkey (Chalke). He is a funny, sweet, geeky underdog, with a great heart and hidden depths.
AMAZON's LORD OF THE RINGS
- Morfydd Clark is set as a series regular on the upcoming drama starring Joseph Mawle, Markella Kavenagh and Ema Horvath. She can currently be seen in HBO's His Dark Materials and next stars in Netflix's Dracula, which debuts on January 4.
- She will play a young version of Galadriel, the character played by Cate Blanchett in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film franchises.
PEACOCK's SAVED BY THE BELL
- John Michael Higgins has been cast as a series regular on the upcoming revival of the NBC sitcom. He previously starred for two seasons in NBC's Great News, which was created by Tracey Wigfield - who will serve as showrunner on the new comedy. He has also starred in the Pitch Perfect film franchise.
- He will play Principal Toddman, the newest principal at Bayside High, who is constantly being pranked by his privileged students and yelled at by their entitled parents. But all this changes when Bayside gets an influx of new, low-income students and Toddman gets a second chance to really make a difference.
