Amazon is developing Whiskey Matriarch, a new drama series created by Alesia Dangerfield and starring and executive produced by Academy Award nominee Taraji P. Henson, Deadline reports exclusively. The series sold to Amazon competitively after originally being set up at Universal Television. Plot details are being kept under wraps.
The project comes from Blackmaled, TPH Entertainment, and Third Road Production. Dangerfield, an up-and-coming L.A.-based writer from Maryland, also writes and executive produces, alongside sisters Attica and Tembi Locke, who write and executive produce as well. Malcolm D. Lee directs and executive produces with Dominique Telson for Blackmaled, with Henson producing alongside Jamila Jordan for TPH.
Henson most recently starred in Netflix’s Why Did I Get Married Again?, reteaming with longtime collaborator Tyler Perry, and made her Broadway debut earlier this year in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone opposite Cedric the Entertainer, a run that’s expected to continue into a feature film adaptation produced by Denzel Washington and Todd Black. She’s next set to appear in Netflix’s Give Me Some Sugah, directed by Tasha Smith. Her TPH banner holds a first-look TV deal with Fox Entertainment Studios and a two-picture film deal with Netflix signed last October, and recently took the documentary Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been to TIFF, where it won the 2026 People’s Choice Documentary Award.
Dangerfield’s prior credits include writing on Paramount+’s The Game reboot. The Locke sisters previously co-created Netflix’s From Scratch, based on Tembi’s memoir, and currently serve as co-showrunners on Peacock’s adaptation of Before I Let Go; Attica also previously worked alongside Henson on Fox’s Empire. Lee, known for directing The Best Man films, Girls Trip, and Night School, also executive produces Before I Let Go alongside the Lockes.
With a competitive sale and a creative team built around writers and producers who’ve already worked with Henson in different combinations across her career, Whiskey Matriarch arrives as one of the more tightly connected development packages moving through the industry right now, built on existing creative relationships rather than a newly assembled team.