Based on the novel by Esi Edugyan, the series follows the 19th century adventures of George Washington "Wash" Black - an 11-year-old boy on a Barbados sugar plantation who must flee after a shocking death threatens to upend his life.
Brown will play the gregarious, larger-than-life Medwin Harris, who traveled the world after a traumatic childhood as a Black refugee in Nova Scotia as the de factor Mayor of Black Halifax prioritizing the community over everything except Washington Black, his young protégé. Meeting Wash sends him down a challenging path of self-discovery. And as the barricades around his heart start to fall, Medwin will learn to dream again.
Selwyn Seyfu Hinds developed the series. He will executive produce with Brown, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, Lindsay Williams, DJ Goldberg, Anthony Hemingway and Jennifer Johnson. Edugyan will serve as a co-producer. 20th Television, Indian Meadows Productions and The Gotham Group will produce.
"Washington Black inspires me," said Brown. "This young man and the adventure he undertakes remind me of how the power of imagination and the creativity of artistry can transform the world in which we live. Selwyn Seyfu Hinds has taken the transcendent words of Esi Edugyan and created a spectacular universe that brings to fruition the power of possibility."
