"Insecure" star and creator Issa Rae will collaborate with "The Turner House" author Angela Flournoy on her next project for HBO—a drama series about a Black family in 1990s Los Angeles.
My L.A kinfolk! @angelaflournoy is such a wonderful writer. So happy to help bring this new project to life.
Also, read #TheTurnerHouse. https://t.co/5BvFiUfXJt
— Issa Rae (@IssaRae) October 24, 2017
Been a fan of @IssaRae since we were LA transplants in NYC a decade ago. Working with her (for @HBO!) on this has been so surreal. https://t.co/4GwUQUrjbD
— Angela Flournoy (@angelaflournoy) October 23, 2017
Deadline reported yesterday (October 23) that Rae and Flournoy, both of whom grew up in Southern California, will develop the still-untitled family drama with the premium cable network. Both women will executive produce the project, with Flournoy writing the script.
Deadline says the series will center on a Black family dealing with the turbulence of early-1990s Los Angeles. The entertainment outlet does not specify if the project will address the Rodney King beating and verdict, the ensuing 1992 unrest or the CRASH anti-gang unit scandal—all of which shined a light on the Los Angeles Police Department’s racist actions towards Black communities. But Deadline’s description of the show’s premise suggests that it will address policing in some capacity:
Bridging those later Reagan Era and early Clinton years, the drama will center on the marriage of Sheryl and Jackson, with the former an envelope bounds-pushing real estate agent and the latter a conflicted LAPD anti-gang task force recruit. The potential series will also feature the couples’ teen daughter and son, Ebony and Les.
"I’m so thrilled to be working with Angela,” Rae told Deadline. “I was a huge fan of ‘The Turner House’ and we feel so lucky to bring her beautiful storytelling to HBO.”
Flournoy’s debut 2015 novel "The Turner House" made it to the National Book Award finals and won the 2016 Virginia Commonwealth University First Novelist Award. This new series marks Flournoy’s first foray into screenwriting.