Rafael Casal is ready for a repeat performance…
The 35-year-old part Spanish and Cuban American writer, performer and producer will reprise his role in Starz’s television adaptation of Blindspotting, the 2018 feature film from Casal and Daveed Diggs.
The series, a spinoff of the film written and produced by Casal and Diggs, is being turned into a half-hour dramedy. Jasmine Cephas Jones, who starred in the Lionsgate film, will reprise her role and also will serve as a producer. Casal serves as showrunner.
The series centers on Ashley (Cephas Jones), who was nipping at the heels of a middle-class life in Oakland until Miles (Casal), her partner of 12 years and father of their son, suddenly is incarcerated, leaving her to navigate a chaotic and humorous existential crisis when she’s forced to move in with Miles’ mother and half-sister.
Benjamin Earl Turner, Atticus Woodward, Jaylen Barron and Candace Nicholas-Lippman will also join the cast of the eight-part series. Casal will appear on a recurring basis, while Justin Chu Cary, who starred in the film, will play Rob.
Produced by Lionsgate Television, the series will start production in Oakland and Los Angeles.
“Diggs and I are thrilled to continue our partnership with Lionsgate by expanding the Blindspotting world as a series on Starz,” Casal said. “This story, the incredible cast and the production are a dream. We are making the kind of show we have long hoped to see on television, centered around just some of the amazing kinds of characters the Bay Area has to offer.”
Added Diggs: “Figuring out a way to bring The Bay to life in a half-hour comedy space has been so rewarding. Ultimately, this is a story about how a broken prison system affects all of us and, like the film, we’re using comedy to talk about very real systemic effects in the country with the largest prison population in the world.”
