Casting News - July 16, 2020
NBC's Kenan.
NBC's KENAN
- Don Johnson, Chris Redd and Kimrie Lewis will co-star on the upcoming comedy starring Kenan Thompson. Johnson starred for five seasons in NBC's Miami Vice, six seasons in CBS' Nash Bridges and in the HBO limited series Watchmen. Redd currently stars alongside Thompson in NBC's Saturday Night Live. Lewis recently starred for two seasons in ABC's Single Parents.
- After originally being piloted in 2019, the comedy has been redeveloped. The new logline reads: "A recently widowed host of Atlanta's #2 morning show (Thompson) struggles to balance his job and his young daughters despite all the "help" he gets from his father-in-law (Johnson) and his brother/assistant/manager/house guest (Redd)."
- Thompson as well as child actors Dani Lockett and Dannah Lockett are the only actors from the original pilot to return for the series. Johnson replaces Andy Garcia, who has moved on to the ABC drama pilot Rebel. Redd is playing a new role. Lewis replaces Punam Patel in the role of Kenan's best friend, Mika.
- The original pilot was written by Jackie Clarke and directed by Chris Rock. Clarke will co-write the new premiere with Happy Endings creator David Caspe, who has joined the project as showrunner as part of his overall deal at Universal Television. Rock will not return to direct as he will be focused on completing the fourth season of FX's Fargo, which was delayed due to the production shutdown from the novel coronavirus pandemic.
