She may have starred in sitcoms like Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Love That Girl, but that doesn’t mean Tatyana Ali is afraid to play up the drama.

The 32-year-old part-Panamanian actress/singer has signed on to star in Home Again, an independent film that highlights the lives of three adults raised as outsiders from childhood.

The characters are deported from Canada, the United States and London to Jamaica—where they were born—and find they have to fight for survival in a country where family support, friends and shelter are elusive, but where ultimately hope and thehuman spirit emerges.

Ali—who recently received a Black Girls Rock Award from BET—will shoot the Canadian drama on location in Trinidad and Jamaica for six weeks, starting in January 2012.