Octavia Spencer is attached to star in The Bobby Love Story, a one-hour drama currently in development at FX.
The series is based on the true story of Bobby Love and his wife, Cheryl of 35+ years who knew nothing about his dark secret. That was until January 2015 when police and FBI agents showed up at their Brooklyn apartment. That day she found out Bobby — a devoted husband and father — was also an escapee from a North Carolina prison.
Shalisha Francis-Feusner is penning the drama which will provide a dramatized account of Bobby Love, the once master thief who faced a 30-year prison sentence. However, Love would escape, fleeing to New York, where he changed his name and began a new life as “Bobby Love,” meeting his wife Cheryl and starting a family. But three decades later Love’s past eventually caught up with him in a dramatic fashion.
Spencer is also executive producing alongside Kerry Washington’s Simpson Street Productions and ABC Signature, where Spencer and her Orit Entertainment and Washington and Simpson Street are under deals. Bobby and Cheryl Love serve as executive producers alongside Girls co-showrunner Jenni Konner. ABC Signature is the studio.
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The Loves’ story was featured in a 2020 multi-part series on Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York blog where it went viral and led to a 10-way bidding war for the rights. The Love’s went on to release a memoir, The Redemption of Bobby Love: A Story of Faith, Family, and Justice, which was published on October 5th.
About Bobby Love:
“As a Black child in the Jim Crow South, Bobby Love found himself in legal trouble before his 14th birthday. Sparked by the desperation he felt in the face of limited options and the pull of the streets, Love became a master thief. He soon found himself facing a 30-year prison sentence. But Love was smarter than his jailers. He escaped, fled to New York, changed his name, and started a new life as “Bobby Love.” During that time, he worked multiple jobs to support his wife and their growing family, coached Little League, attended church, took his kids to Disneyland, and led an otherwise normal life. Then it all came crashing down.”
For Love’s full story visit: Humans of New York
Spencer currently stars in the Apple TV+ drama series Truth Be Told, where she plays Poppy Parnell, an investigative reporter behind a hit true-crime podcast. She also recently appeared in the Netflix miniseries Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C. J. Walker. Spencer is a three-time Oscar nominee, winning a Supporting Actress Award in 2012 for her portrayal of Minny Jackson in Tate Taylor’s The Help.