Francia Raisa is heading back to college next semester…
Freeform has set a January premiere date for the new season of Grown-ish, which features the 31-year-old Mexican and Honduran American actress in the ensemble cast.
The Season 3 premiere of the Black-ish spinoff will serve as the lead-in for the network’s new comedy Everything’s Gonna Be Okayat 8:00 pm on Thursday, January 16.
The gang returns as confident, eager and seasoned upper-classmen, with Zoey and her girls (… and Vivek) moving into an off-campus home, ready to take on the school year. They quickly realize that they have been mistaken about the disillusionment of adulthood, with real-life problems coming for them, including student loans, work/ life balance and, of course, messy breakups. Plus, the season premiere picks up with some of the crew having to deal with the repercussions of their big mistakes before summer break.
From ABC Signature Studios,Grown-ishstars Yara Shahidi, Trevor Jackson, Raisa, Emily Arlook, Jordan Buhat, Chloe Bailey, Halle Bailey,Luka Sabbatand Diggy Simmons.
The series will continue to explore important topics including college athletics, cultural appropriation, toxic masculinity, anxiety, burnout and more.
The 50-year-old half-Venezuelan American songstress has shared a special video of her original theme song for ABC’s Black-ish spinoff Mixed-ish.
Appropriately titled “In The Mix”, the song made its debut at the network’s “Embrace Your Ish” premiere event on Tuesday night.
The video for the song features clips from the black-ish spinoff which premieres on September 24. We also get to see series stars Arica Himmel, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tika Sumpter, Christina Anthony and Gary Cole jam out to the radio-friendly bop.
The Grammy-winning singer joined executive producer Kenya Barrison stage at the “Embrace Your Ish” event to talk about the genesis of the theme song and the importance of multiracial representation on television. The song was written by Carey and produced by Carey and Daniel Moore. And it’s now available for purchase wherever you buy music.
The event also featured screenings of mixed-ish and black-ish and a recap of grown-ish. “Ish” universe stars Anthony Anderson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Laurence Fishburne, Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Tika Sumpter were all on hand to discuss their shows.
Mixed-ish follows a young Rainbow Johnson (Himmel) as she recounts her experience growing up in a mixed-race family in the ‘80s and the dilemmas they face to acclimate in the suburbs while staying true to themselves. Bow’s parents, Paul (Gosselaar) and Alicia (Sumpter), decide to move from a hippie commune to the suburbs to better provide for their family. As her parents struggle with the challenges of their new life, Bow and her siblings navigate a mainstream school in which they’re perceived as neither black nor white. This family’s experiences illuminate the challenges of finding one’s own identity when the rest of the world can’t decide where you belong.
The 49-year-old half-Venezuelan American five-time Grammy-winning singer has been tapped to write and perform the theme song for ABC’s newblack-ish spinoff mixed-ish.
Titled “In the Mix”, the track is written by Carey and produced by Carey and Daniel Moore. Sung by Carey, the new theme song will be heard when the series premieres on Tuesday, September 24 at 9:00 pm ET on ABC.
“As a fan of Kenya Barris’ megahit shows, black-ish and grown-ish, I was inspired to connect with Kenya to find a way we could work together,” said Carey. “As a biracial woman in the entertainment industry, there was no way I did not want to be a part of mixed-ish, especially after seeing the pilot, which I loved. I could not be more honored and proud to be writing and performing ‘In the Mix’ for Kenya and the show.”
ABC’s mixed-ish will follow Rainbow Johnson as she recounts her experience growing up in a mixed-race family in the ‘80s and the dilemmas they face to acclimate in the suburbs while staying true to themselves. Bow’s parents, Paul and Alicia, decide to move from a hippie commune to the suburbs to better provide for their family. As her parents struggle with the challenges of their new life, Bow and her siblings navigate a mainstream school in which they’re perceived as neither black nor white. This family’s experiences illuminate the challenges of finding one’s own identity when the rest of the world can’t decide where you belong.
The series stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Paul Johnson, Tika Sumpter as Alicia Johnson, Christina Anthony as Denise, Arica Himmel as Bow Johnson, Ethan William Childress as Johan Johnson, Mykal-Michelle Harris as Santamonica Johnson and Gary Cole as Harrison.
Karin Gist, Peter Saji and Barris are writers and executive producers, along with Tracee Ellis Ross, Randall Winston, Artists First (Brian Dobbins), Cinema Gypsy (Laurence Fishburne and Helen Sugland) and Anthony Anderson.
Anton Cropperdirected the pilot. The series is produced by ABC Studios, a part of Disney Television Studios, a collection of studios comprised of 20th Century Fox Television, ABC Studios and Fox 21 Television Studios.
The NAACP Image Awards were doled out over the weekend, with the 33-year-old part-Puerto Rican singer taking home a prize.
The Grammy-winning artist was named Outstanding Male Artist. Mars beat out Childish Gambino, John Legend, MAJOR and Raheem DeVaughn for the award.
It’s Mars’ second consecutive win in the category. In addition to Outstanding Male Artist, he won the Outstanding Song, Traditional and Outstanding Music Videofor “That’s What I Like” last year.
The ceremony took place at the Dolby Theatrein Hollywood, with Black-ish actor Anthony Andersonhosting the live broadcast on TV One.
This is the 50th year the Image Awards have been held.
Here’s a look at this year’s winners:
Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture Chadwick Boseman – Black Panther (Marvel Studios)
Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series Taraji P. Henson – Empire (FOX)
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series Anthony Anderson – Black-ish (ABC)
Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series Omari Hardwick – Power (Starz)
Outstanding Album Ella Mai – Ella Mai (10 Summers/Interscope Records)
Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series Tracee Ellis Ross, Black-ish (ABC)
Outstanding Actress: Motion Picture Amandla Stenberg – The Hate U Give (20th Century Fox)
Outstanding Motion Picture Black Panther (Marvel Studios)
Entertainer of the Year Beyoncé
Winners announced at non-televised awards dinner:
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Marcus Scribner, Black-ish (ABC)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Marsai Martin, Black-ish (ABC)
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Jesse Williams, Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Lynn Whitfield, Greenleaf (OWN)
Outstanding Guest Performance in a Comedy or Drama Series Kerry Washington – How to Get Away with Murder – “Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania” (ABC)
Outstanding Television Movie, Limited-Series or Dramatic Special The Bobby Brown Story (BET)
Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Limited-Series or Dramatic Special Michael B. Jordan, Fahrenheit 451 (HBO)
Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Limited-Series or Dramatic Special Regina King, Seven Seconds (Netflix) Outstanding News/Information (Series or Special) Oprah Winfrey Presents: Becoming Michelle Obama (OWN)
Outstanding Talk Series The Real (Syndicated)
Outstanding Reality Program, Reality Competition or Game Show (Series) Iyanla: Fix My Life (OWN)
Outstanding Variety Show (Series or Special) Black Girls Rock! (BET)
Outstanding Children’s Program Doc McStuffins (Disney Junior)
Outstanding Performance by a Youth (Series, Special, Television Movie or Limited-Series Marsai Martin – Black-ish (ABC)
Outstanding Host in a Talk or News/Information (Series or Special) – Individual or Ensemble Jada Pinkett Smith, Adrienne Banfield Norris, Willow Smith – Red Table Talk(Facebook Watch)
Outstanding Host in a Reality/Reality Competition, Game Show or Variety (Series or Special) – Individual or Ensemble Steve Harvey – Family Feud (Syndication)
Outstanding New Artist Ella Mai (10 Summers/Interscope Records)
Outstanding Male Artist Bruno Mars (Atlantic Records)
Outstanding Female Artist H.E.R. (RCA Records)
Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration All The Stars – Black Panther – Kendrick Lamar, SZA (Top Dawg Entertainment/Aftermath/Interscope Records)
Outstanding Jazz Album The Story of Jaz – Jazmin Ghent feat. Jeff Lorber, James P. Lloyd, Kim Scott, Philippe Saisse (Jazmin Ghent Music)
Outstanding Gospel Album (Traditional or Contemporary) Unstoppable – Koryn Hawthorne (RCA Inspirational)
Outstanding Music Video/Visual Album This Is America – Childish Gambino (RCA Records)
Outstanding Song – Traditional Long As I Live – Toni Braxton (Def Jam Recordings)
Outstanding Song – Contemporary Boo’d Up – Ella Mai (10 Summers/Interscope Records)
Outstanding Soundtrack/Compilation Black Panther The Album Music From and Inspired By – Kendrick Lamar, SZA feat. 2Chainz, ScHoolboy Q, Saudi, Khalid, Swae Lee, Vince Staples, Yugen Blakrok, SOB x RBE, Jorja Smith, Anderson .Paak, Ab Soul, Reason, Zacari, Babes Wudumo, Sjava, Travis Scott (Interscope Records)
Literary Work – Fiction An American Marriage – Tayari Jones (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)
Outstanding Literary Work – Nonfiction For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics – Donna Brazile (Author), Yolanda Caraway (Author), Leah Daughtry (Author), Minyon Moore (Author), Veronica Chambers (With), (St. Martin’s Press)
Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author Us Against The World: Our Secrets to Love, Marriage, and Family – David Mann (Author), Tamela Mann (Author), Shaun Saunders (With), (W Publishing)
Outstanding Literary Work – Biography/Autobiography Becoming – Michelle Obama (Crown)
Outstanding Literary Work – Instructional Rise and Grind: Outperform, Outwork, and Outhustle Your Way to a More Successful and Rewarding Life – Daymond John (Author), Daniel Paisner(With), (Currency)A A
Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart – Alice Walker (Author) (37 Ink/Atria Books)
Outstanding Literary Work – Children Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race – Margot Lee Shetterly (Author), Laura Freeman (Illustrator), (Harper)
Outstanding Literary Work – Youth/Teens Harbor Me – Jacqueline Woodson (Nancy M. Paulsen)
Outstanding Documentary (Television) Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland (HBO)
Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series Trevor Noah , Steve Budow , David Kibuuka , Zhubin Parang , Dan Amira , Lauren Sarver Means , Mr. Daniel Radosh , David Angelo , Devin Trey Delliquanti , Zachary DiLanzo – The Daily Show with Trevor Noah – 23087
Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture (Television) J. David Shanks – Seven Seconds: Matters of Life and Death (Netflix)
Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture (Film) Ryan Coogler, Joe Robert Cole – Black Panther (Marvel Studios)
Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series Donald Glover – Atlanta – “FUBU” (FX Networks)
Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series Deborah Ann Chow – Better Call Saul – “Something Stupid” (AMC)
Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture (Television) Tracy Heather Strain – Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart (PBS)
Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture (Film) Ryan Coogler – Black Panther (Marvel Studios)
Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance (Television or Film) Samuel L. Jackson – Incredibles 2 (Disney and Pixar Animation Studios)
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture Michael B. Jordan – Black Panther (Marvel Studios)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Danai Gurira – Black Panther (Marvel Studios)
Outstanding Independent Motion Picture If Beale Street Could Talk (Annapurna Pictures)
Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture Black Panther (Marvel Studios)
Freeform has announced the midseason return of Grown-ish, starring the 30-year-old Mexican and Honduran American actress.
Grown-ish, a spinoff of Freeform corporate sibling ABC’s Black-ish, will kick off the second half of its Season 2 at 8:00 pm on Wednesday, June 5.
After the cliffhanger spring finale, Zoey (Yara Shahidi) and her friends find themselves at dramatic crossroads in their relationships, academics and adulthood. Topics explored in the new episodes will include cultural appropriation, mental health, academic scandal and more.
In addition to Raisa and Shahidi, the cast also includes Trevor Jackson, Emily Arlook, Jordan Buhat, Chloe Bailey,Halle Bailey, Luka Sabbat, Deon Coleand newly promoted series regular Diggy Simmons.
The 34-year-old part-Puerto Rican actor will star as Litty in Sony’s Superflyremake, which has Director X at the helm.
Alex Tse will pen the screenplay based on the original Gordon Parks Jr.-directed blaxploitation crime drama, which follows an African American cocaine dealer who tries to secure one more deal before getting out of the business.
Lex Scott Davis, Andrea Londo, Jacob Ming-Trent, and Omar Chapparo will co-star.
The film is slated to open in theaters on June 15.
Maldonado, who recurs on ABC’s Black-ish, co-stars opposite Tracy Morgan and Tiffany Haddish on TBS’ Jordan Peele-created comedy series, The Last O.G, which premieres in April.
The 29-year-old Honduran and Mexican American actress has joined the cast of Freeform’s Grown-ish, the spinoff of ABC’s acclaimed sitcomBlack-ish.
Grown-ish, from Black-ish executive producer Kenya Barris, is a contemporary take on the current issues facing both students and administrators in the world of higher education. Yara Shahidi portrays Zoey – Dre (Anthony Anderson) and Rainbow’s (Tracee Ellis Ross) popular, entitled, stylish and socially active 17-year-old daughter — as she heads off to college and quickly discovers that not everything goes her way once she leaves the nest.
Raisa will portray Ana, an outspoken conservative freshman at Southern California University.
Raisa joins previously announced cast members Shahidi, Deon Cole, Chris Parnell, Emily Arlook and Trevor Jackson.
The 13-episode comedy series is set to start production next week for an early 2018 premiere on Freeform.
Raisa, who rose to acclaim on The Secret Life of the American Teenager, previously appeared on Dear White People, The Mindy Project and In Plain Sight.
The 42-year-old Mexican American actress and former Desperate Housewives star will play the lead in Type-A, Fox’s single-camera workplace comedy pilot from the Life in Piecesduo of executive producer Jason Winer and writer-producer Lesley Wake-Webster.
Written by Wake-Webster and loosely based on the book Assholes: A Theory by Aaron James,Type-A — in the vein of Up in the Air — is an office comedy about a group of consultants hand-picked to do the dirty work most professionals can’t handle: layoffs, downsizing, generally delivering horrible news. To everyone else, they’re the enemy – to one another, they’re family.
Longoria will play Axler, the ambitious, brutally honest consultant who is at war with her inner “nice girl.”
Winer is directing as well as executive producing with Wake-Webster, while James serves as consultant for 20th Century Fox Television.
Fox and 20th have been high on Longoria, courting her for multiple projects. She also is set for a high-profile guest-starring turn this spring on the Fox flagship drama series Empire, playing Charlotte Frost, the formidable director of the Nevada Gaming Commission who has the power to make or break Lucious’ (Terrence Howard) dreams of expanding Empire’s reach to Las Vegas.
Through her production company UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, Longoria executive produced the Lifetime series Devious Maids and NBC comedy Telenovela, in which she also starred.
Longoria next stars opposite Demian Bichir in the featureLowriders and is featured in the British miniseries Decline and Fall opposite Jack Whitehall, which premieres in the spring. She recently directed an episode of the CW’sJane the Virgin and is set to direct an episode of ABC’s Black-ish.
Allen Maldonado is ready for a little family bonding.
The half-Puerto Rican actor will star opposite Tracy Morgan in Morgan’s straight-to-series comedy at TBS.
The untitled series centers on Tray (Morgan). After being released on good behavior from a 15-year prison stint, he’s shocked to see how much the world has changed in his absence. Returning to his newly-gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood, Tray discovers that his former girlfriend has married an affable, successful white man, who’s helping raise the twin sons Tray never knew existed. Wanting nothing more than to connect with his children, but having no money to support them or himself, Tray falls back on the skills he learned in prison to make ends meet.
Maldonado will play Cousin Bobby, Tray’s loyal cousin, not the brightest tool in the shed. He was just 15 when Tray first went to prison, and he’s grown up to be a small-time hustler who is always looking for the latest scam. He helps Tray adjust to life on the outside.
The project, executive produced by Jordan Peele, was first set up at FX with a pilot order. It was picked up by TBS after FX opted not to move forward.
Maldonado has starred for the past three seasons as Curtis on ABC’sBlack-ish. He previously played DeShauwn onSurvivor’s Remorse and also appeared in the feature Straight OuttaCompton.
The 46-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress has been cast as the female lead in ABC’s comedy pilot Charlie Foxtrot.
Hailing from writer Sam Sklaver, Kapital Entertainment and ABC Studios, the project is set at Fort Bragg, an Army base in North Carolina.
It centers on Angelina Torres (Ortiz) and her two children, who live on the base. But, when Angelina loses her fiancé, Joe Taylor, killed in action in Iraq, it looks as though she’ll have to move. But Joe’s brother, Charlie Taylor (Jason Biggs), a dentist at the base, and usually a pushover, isn’t about to let that happen.
Torres’ Angelina is a well-meaning, fierce single mother-lion who believes in putting her kids first, even if that means crossing a few lines.
The casting of Ortiz, who starred in Devious Maids andUgly Betty, stems from a talent deal ABC and ABC Studios signed with Ortiz immediately after Ortiz’s previous series, ABC Studios’ dramedy Devious Maids, ended its four-season run on Lifetime last summer. She decided on Charlie Foxtrot after being presented with several scripts.
This is Ortiz’s third consecutive pilot for ABC and ABC Studios, following the hourlong Ugly Betty and Devious Maids, both of which went to series, with the latter moving from ABC to Lifetime. Ortiz earned an ALMA Award and Imagen Award for her performance as Hilda on Ugly Betty.
Her television credits include appearances on How to Get Away with Murder, Revenge and Black-ish.
