The cast for the upcoming fourth installment in the Disney+/National Geographic anthology series titled Genius: MLK/X is shaping out to be full of talent–rising talent and well established talent.
Genius: MLK/X will explore the formative years, pioneering accomplishments, dueling philosophies, and key personal relationships of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and Malcolm X (Aaron Pierre).
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While King advanced racial equality through nonviolent protest, Malcolm X argued forcefully for Black empowerment, identity and self-determination. With their formidable wives, Coretta Scott King ( Weruche Opia) and Betty Shabazz (Jayme Lawson), by their sides, King and Malcolm X became synonymous with the civil rights era and the fight for racial and economic justice. While they met only once and often challenged each other’s views, neither would have been as successful without the other.
Raphael Jackson, Jr. and Damione Macedon are the showrunners and executive producers of the anthology series. Channing Godfrey Peoples is directing the pilot based on a script by Jeff Stetson.
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Principal photography on the series comes from 20th Television, Imagine Television and Reggie Rock Bythewood and Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Undisputed Cinema. And Several historians and experts have come on board as production consultants prior to the start of the writers room to guide the narrative.
Peoples is co-executive producing Genius: MLK/X alongside. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard executive produce For Imagine Television. For Undisputed Cinema, Reggie Rock Bythewood, Gina Prince-Bythewood and Francie Calfo are executive producers. Jackson Jr. and Macedon are also executive producers. For MWM Studios, Gigi Pritzker and Rachel Shane serve as executive producers. For EUE/Sokolow, Sam Sokolow is executive producer. Stetson is also an executive producer. Godfrey Peoples is a co-executive producer. Ambassador Shabazz serves as consulting producer.
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Check out the full cast list and their characters below.
This list is constantly updated, most recent castings are at the top.
Jalyn Hall, who is currently playing Emmett Till in the film Till, will take on guest-starring role as the young Martin Luther King Jr.
Ron Cephas Jones will play Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. Powerful, confident, and complicated, he is a teacher and mentor of Malcolm X and referred to humbly all members of the NOI as “The Honorable One”.
Gary Carr is Clyde X, an official at Temple Number 7 in Harlem and Elijah Muhammad’s trusted confidant. Clyde is the eyes and ears in NYC, a position he is deeply proud of. Clyde’s history is one crowded in mystery, stints in prison and time in the army only help to cast a shadow of a man who carries a menacing presence. But one thing that is clear is his deep loyalty to the Nation of Islam and his leader, the honorable Elijah Muhammad. Clyde is impressed but also secretly jealous of Malcolm X’s success and especially of Elijah’s trust and love for him. Clyde likes consistency and order. Challenges to the chain of command disturb him.
Hubert Point-Du Jour is Ralph Abernathy, a Baptist minister and Civil Rights leader in the sixties. Ralph is a man of principle with a deeply rooted sense of justice.
Lennie Jamesrecurs as Daddy King aka Dr. Michael King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s father. A preacher at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia in the year 1934, he is an imposing figure, fiery, impassioned, and inspiring.
LisaGay Hamilton plays Alberta King, Martin Luther King Jr’s mother, the “First Lady” of Ebenezer Baptist Church. Gifted, loving, skilled, and wise, she is a constant source of strength to the King family.
Ashley Romans portrays Ella Mae, Malcolm’s half-sister.
Donal Logue plays Strom Thurmond, an American politician, decorated military officer, attorney, and former South Carolina governor who then represented South Carolina in the United States Senate starting in 1954.
Griffin Matthews portrays Bayard Rustin. He is a trusted adviser to the reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. since the days of the Montgomery bus boycott, and helps plan the March on Washington serving as the Deputy Director of the march. Inspired by Quaker pacifism with socialism and the theory of non-violent protest, Rustin combines these threads into his own personal and working philosophy. In his own right, Rustin is a civil rights lion who is impeccably dressed in pressed pastel Oxford slacks, perfectly creased, with a pair of horn-rimmed eyeglasses, and yet there’s something quiet intimidating about him.
Kelvin Harrison Jr. will portray Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Aaron Pierre will portray Malcolm X
Weruche Opia will portray King’s wife, Coretta Scott King
Jayme Lawson will portray Malcolm X’s wife, Betty Shabazz.