Black Excellence within the Black Experience of TV and Film
Kennedi Reece was still walking Howard University’s yard when she landed the role that would put her on a different one. Months before graduating with the class of 2026, the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts student was cast as Hazel Henry, the bright, bubbly, unapologetically herself freshman in Netflix’s A Different World. It’s […]
The actors behind Ali’s parents on filling history’s blank pages, and how a cast of Southern kids became a real family History remembers Muhammad Ali in staggering detail. It barely remembers the two people who raised him. Cassius “Cash” Clay Sr. and Odessa “Bird” Clay are mostly footnotes in Ali biographies, which left Omari Hardwick […]
“This is not Malcolm’s story.” Ealy and Parham on brotherhood, mentorship and the self-doubt behind the swagger Before he was the Greatest, he was somebody’s little brother’s hero and somebody’s protégé. In The Greatest, those two relationships carry the story’s quietest weight. Kai Parham plays Rudy Clay, later Rahman Ali, the younger brother who sparred […]
Every Muhammad Ali story runs into the same problem: how do you play a man the whole world already knows by heart? The voice, the poetry, the tilt of the head before a punchline: Ali performed himself so completely that any imitation risks becoming a costume. Prime Video’s The Greatest, premiering November 4, takes on […]
Joseph plays Liston in Prime Video’s The Greatest, the first authorized scripted series about Ali, premiering November 4. Created by Ben Watkins, the eight-episode first season traces Clay’s rise from his 1960 Olympic gold in Rome to the 1964 night he took Liston’s heavyweight title and shocked the world. Jaalen Best stars as Ali, alongside […]
Spoiler warning: this interview covers Reasonable Doubt Season 4 through episode 6. When we last saw Jax Stewart, she looked like she’d won. In Season 3 she took on the defense of Ozzie Edwards, a former child star accused of murder, uncovered the abuse he’d suffered in silence for years, and got him acquitted. Then […]
What would you do if you found out your partner was a serial killer? And if your daughter was dating a killer’s son, how far would you go to protect her? For Bokeem Woodbine, the answer is clear. Somebody might be going missing. The actor and Nona Parker Johnson are stepping into the twisted world […]
If you watched Snowfall, you know Quincy Chad, even if you only know him as Deon. The New York–bred actor has built a career one strong role at a time, with appearances on Orange Is the New Black, Power, and The Get Down. He was a Snowfall fan long before he joined the cast. He […]
Long before creating television, Deji LaRay was learning it from the inside. At 13, the Atlanta native was on stage in The Shadow Box, guest-starring on New York Undercover, and flying to New York solo for auditions. Three decades later, the résumé includes The Shield, Charmed, Without a Trace, and Bosch, but the most compelling […]
In 1972, filmmaker William Greaves did something no history book could: he gathered the surviving legends of the Harlem Renaissance in Duke Ellington’s Harlem home, poured the drinks, and let the cameras roll. Painters, poets, journalists, and musicians who hadn’t seen each other in decades laughed, argued, and remembered the movement they built together. Then […]