‘Twenties’: Who Stars in Lena Waithe’s New Series and What’s It About?
Lena Waithe is the true definition of a multi-hyphenate. The actress, writer and producer’s latest project, BET‘s Twenties is set to premiere soon and it is highly-anticipated.
Lena Waithe’s ‘Twenties’ premieres soon
The eight-episode, half-hour series is the first BET series to focus on a queer black woman. According to the network, it “follows the adventures of a queer black girl, Hattie, and her two straight best friends, Marie and Nia, who spend most of their days talking ‘ish’ and chasing their dreams.”
Twenties is a long-gestating passion project for Waithe. It was originally in development at BET, but later moved to TBS, where it received a pilot order.
Then, things got shuffled around once again, and Twenties moved back to BET, where it got a series order.
Waithe says the series is semi-autobiographical, but has been updated to the present time, reflecting the change that has happened in Hollywood since it was first developed.
“This is our world post-my character on Master of None, it’s a world post-Get Out; it’s a world post-Moonlight,” she said to The New York Times. “This is the first time a masculine-of-center black woman has been the center of a show on prime-time TV.”
Here’s who stars in ‘Twenties’
The series stars Jonica “Jojo” T. Gibbs as Hattie, Christina Elmore as Marie, Gabrielle Graham as Nia, Sophina Brown as Ida B. Rapper Big Sean, in his on-screen debut, also has a big recurring role in the series.
Gibbs recently appeared in a recurring role on Freeform’s Good Trouble. Elmore has appeared in Insecure and The Last Ship. Graham had a role in the Ruth Bader Ginsberg film On The Basis of Sex, and Brown has been in television shows like NCIS and Zoo.
On her character of Hattie, Gibbs said in a recent feature with Interview magazine, “One thing that I admire about Hattie is that we never highlight the fact that she’s a lesbian, because she’s already confident and secure in herself. When I was that age, I wasn’t in that position. My family didn’t know. I definitely felt like I was living a life that nobody knew about.”
Twenties debuts Wednesday, March 4 on BET.
