After appearing alongside her father, the legendary Forest Whitaker, in Godfather of Harlem, True Whitaker has a big couple of years lined up.

Before starring her role in the upcoming Spring Breakers sequel, she’s just debuted as a series regular in HBO’s new comedy series I Love LA, created by and starring Rachel Sennott.

In the show, she plays Alani, a friend of Maia (Sennott) and the daughter of a famous producer. It’s one similarity she shares with the fictional character, and Whitaker says in real life, she’s not shying away from her connection to a Black Hollywood legend either.

Why True Whitaker embraces her dad’s industry status

During the cast’s recent interview with Shadow and Act, Whitaker explained, “I love the fact that she [Alani] is not embarrassed or doesn’t feel some type of way about her nepotism. And to me, I feel the exact same way. I’m proud of my Black ass dad, who made something of himself and is a legend. And to have that so close to me, [and] to be able to pull from that and be so heavily inspired…I’ll never be embarrassed or feel weird about being associated with the greatness that he has created. And I’m hoping that I can be able to do that too.”

Why ‘I Love LA’ is important as one of her first big roles

She also talked about how I Love LA was a perfect project to be one of her first major film/television roles.

“The cast and crew provided an environment that was so amazing,” she said in part. “So I feel like I was able to just be comfortable within and go for it in any way that I could. I also think that this specific character and job has allowed me to lean into a huge part of myself, which is my humor. And I am excited for everyone to experience that because in the show that I’ve worked on before, it was a drama period piece, like Godfather of Harlem, and that character was pretty heavy.

I Love LA airs Sundays on HBO and streams on HBO Max.

True Whitaker

Get relevant content delivered to you once a week