Us star Shahadi Wright-Joseph and relative newcomer Melody Hurd are among the new cast members tapped to star in Amazon’s upcoming horror anthology series, Them, Shadow And Act has learned.
The two join previously-announced leads Deborah Ayorinde and Ashley Thomas. Alison Pill, Javier Botet, Ryan Kwanten and Percy Hynes White have also been announced as series regulars.
Created, written and executive produced by Little Marvin, Lena Waithe is an executive producer.
The first season of the series, titled Them: Covenant, will “follow the characters of Alfred and Lucky Emory (Thomas and Ayorinde) who decide to move their family from North Carolina to an all-white Los Angeles neighborhood. The family’s home on a tree-lined, seemingly idyllic street becomes ground zero where malevolent forces both real and supernatural threaten to taunt, ravage and destroy them.”
Joseph and Hurd will play their children. Joseph is Ruby Lee Emory. A starlet in the making, Ruby is “an intelligent, studious 14-year-old and the apple of her father’s eye.” Hurd is Gracie Emory, a strong, willful, and fiercely independent 6-year-old firecracker who takes after her mother.
“My heart was still pounding an hour after I heard this pitch. The show is edge of your seat scary and addictive while also being provocative and socially relevant. We are thrilled to be in business with the incredibly talented Lena Waithe, Little Marvin and Vertigo” said Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke in a statement last year, when the series was first picked up.
“Little Marvin’s script stayed with me for weeks after I read it. He’s written something that’s provocative and terrifying. The first season will speak to how frightening it was to be Black in 1953. It will also remind us that being Black in 2018 is just as horrifying. This anthology series will examine the cultural divides among all of us and explore us vs THEM in a way we’ve never seen before,” said Waithe at the time.
Little Marvin added, “I’ve always felt that dark, surreal times deserve dark, surreal mirrors to show us ourselves. And at this point in time, one of the best ways to examine fractures in our world [is] through the visceral and raw lens of horror. I’m beyond thrilled that our series has found its home with the fine folks at Amazon.”
Waithe’s Hillman Grad Productions upcoming slate includes Waithe’s feature film writing debut Queen & Slim, starring Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith, directed by Melina Matsoukas, Twenties, which she created and wrote for BET, HBO’s Untitled Kid Fury Project, and Showtime’s How to Make Love to a Black Woman. She is the creator and executive producer of the Showtime drama series The Chi, which will return for a third season next year, as well as BET’s Boomerang which is returning for a second season next year.
READ MORE:
‘Them’: Lena Waithe’s Horror Anthology Series At Amazon To Star Deborah Ayorinde And Ashley Thomas
Photo: Amazon
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