Atlantans give Memphis love in new ALLBLK drama ‘G.R.I.T.S.’

Atlanta has gotten no shortage of love as a shooting location and setting for television shows in recent years with Starz “BMF,” FX’s “Atlanta” and ABC’s “Will Trent.”

But Deji LaRay, an Atlanta native who wrote and created the new ALLBK show “G.R.I.T.S.” wanted to focus on a Southern city that doesn’t get as much attention on TV: Memphis, Tennessee.

“I have family in Memphis,” LaRay said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I’ve worked in the city many times. I love the vibe there. I wanted to create a series that showcased the complexity of the city.”

“It’s one of the last true Southern cities that still has its character, from the way people talk to how strong family is there to the food and the music,” he said. “It’s so vibrant. But Memphis can be very unfiltered and unforgiving. I wanted to show the chaos, too.”

The result is “G.R.I.T.S.,” an eight-episode drama that features a trio of struggling young Black women in Memphis chasing their dreams and hoping a $50,000 roller skating prize could help them get there.

He chose Atlanta actress Jasmine Sargent as the lead Keisha, a server and preacher’s daughter who is grieving the horrific death of her boyfriend in the parking lot of a skating rink. She is the anchor of the series.

A Virginia native with a master’s degree in forensic psychology, Sargent built up 20 acting credits over the past decade including “House of Payne,” “Beauty in Black” and “Dynasty” before landing her first regular role in a TV series.

“I finally found my groove,” Sargent said.

LaRay cast Sargent because “she can go from vulnerable to commanding with the snap of a finger. When we saw her audition tape, we immediately knew she was Keisha.”

Jasmine Sargent, an Atlanta resident, nabbed her first regular role on a TV series as Keisha on "G.R.I.T.S." on ALLBLK, a streaming service for Black television from AMC Networks. (Courtesy of Jeff Dansby Photography)

When Sargent saw the description for Keisha, “it was kind of scary how similar Keisha was to me. We had the same hobbies. We had the same personality. We had the same loves.”

And bonus points for Sargent: She can roller skate adeptly. “I’ve been skating since I was a little kid,” she said. “It’s one of my favorite hobbies to this day.”

The one thing that worried her was capturing the Memphis accent. Fortunately, Memphis native Aja Canyon, who plays gritty wannabe chef Francis, was able to school Sargent and Ashanti Harris (their friend Ty, a single mom and would-be model) on the proper Memphis lilt.

The women’s struggles in the show seem especially timely given the recent focus in the news on inequality and the financial tightrope so many households face.

“It’s a common thread across America now,” LaRay said. “These women come from a world lacking in opportunities. They don’t always make the best decisions and face consequences. But they figure out ways to be resilient.”

The ladies of "G.R.I.T.S." stand outside the former Skate Along USA in Lilburn where the fictional characters compete in a skating contest for $50,000. Skate Along USA closed in August 2025 after 48 years. (Courtesy of ALLBLK)

LaRay wanted to use a classic Memphis skating rink Crystal Palace but it had shut down in 2017 and was not in usable shape. So he hunted around in Atlanta and landed on Skate Along USA in Lilburn last year.

The show was shot in part at Skate Along USA in Lilburn. Management gave LaRay free rein in part because the rink was about to close permanently (and did so this past August.) Unfortunately, if ALLBLK gives the show a second season, LaRay will have to find another rink.

The series captures a dreamlike vibe of being on the rink.

“The skating rink was an escape for me when I was a kid growing up,” LaRay said. (His childhood rink Sparkles in Riverdale was torn down a long time ago.) “It’s the place you could have your first kiss or sneak a drink in the parking lot. The floor itself was often euphoric. One of the camera guys is a professional skater and was able to film on the rink.”

LaRay also used many crew members from his Bounce TV show “Johnson” about four 30-something best friends in Atlanta who are unrelated but share the same common last name. And he cast Thomas Q. Jones, one of his friends from “Johnson‚” as Keisha’s father, a preacher with questionable morals.

He shot most of “G.R.I.T.S.” in Atlanta because of Georgia’s generous tax credit program but also spent a week in Memphis to capture the exterior essence of the city. “We were able to shoot a scene of the young ladies hanging out on the roof along the Mississippi River,” an homage to the movie “Set it Off,” he said. “It’s a bonding moment. We really loved that.”

There are also sweeping scenes of Keisha roller skating on the streets of Memphis on her way to her diner job. “It all went off surprisingly well,” he said. “We were able to shoot those without a lot of traffic and commotion. That would have been a lot harder to do in Atlanta.”

Deji LaRay (left) and Thomas Q. Jones previously worked together on the Atlanta-filmed and -set Bounce TV show "Johnson." (Courtesy of Bounce TV)

“G. R. I. T. S,” by the way, stands for “Girls Raised in the South.”

“It’s something we’ve been saying in the South for decades,” LaRay said. “It’s also a double entendre since Keisha works in a diner and grits is a classic Southern dish. It felt very fitting.”