Posted Monday, December 11, 2017 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
OWN will be shooting a second scripted series in Atlanta after "Greenleaf" starting in February: "Love Is_," created by Mara Brock and Salim Akil, the husband-wife team behind "The Game" and "Being Mary Jane."
Salim Akil, while on a set visit today in Decatur for his upcoming show "Black Lightning" on the CW, told me that the Akil's next series "Love Is_" will be shot in Atlanta as well.
It's their first effort for Oprah Winfrey's network. Akil's wife Mara Brock will be show running that show while he is show runner for the highly anticipated "Black Lightning," which debuts January 16 on the CW.
"Love Is_” is a reflection of the Akil's own life, a love story about a modern-day power couple. As OWN describes, the show: "In the world of Black Hollywood, they navigate a complex set of social codes, and this series will explore it all, from the good to the bad and to the ‘90s when the love story began."
Michele Weaver and Will Catlett (who plays bad guy La La on "Black Lightning") will play the lead couple.
Here's how their characters are described: "Weaver will play Nuri, a bubbly personality with big dreams who is struggling to make a name for herself as a sitcom staff writer while juggling an assortment of romances that only leave her partly fulfilled. After she meets Yasir (Catlett), himself unemployed and barely holding onto his dreams, Nuri changes all her opinions about what she expects from a man because she's just found the one who is perfect for her."
The Akils have spent much of the past six years shooting scripted programming in metro Atlanta. First up was "The Game" revival on BET (2011-2015), BET's "Being Mary Jane" (which debuted as a film in 2013 and will conclude next year with a series-ending movie) and now these two shows.
The underscore in the title is meant as kind of a “fill in the blank” construct as in “Love is” a lot of things.
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