Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Rutina Wesley Joins Ava DuVernay’s ‘Queen Sugar’ for OWN

Actress Rutina Wesley attends Entertainment Weekly's Annual Comic-Con Celebration at Float at Hard Rock Hotel San Diego on July 26, 2014 in San Diego, California.
Actress Rutina Wesley attends Entertainment Weekly’s Annual Comic-Con Celebration at Float at Hard Rock Hotel San Diego on July 26, 2014 in San Diego, California.

*Rutina Wesley (“True Blood”) has been cast as a series regular role in the new original series “Queen Sugar,” from “Selma” director Ava DuVernay for OWN.

“Queen Sugar” follows the lives and loves of the estranged Bordelon siblings in Saint Josephine, Louisiana: Charley, the savvy wife and manager of an NBA star; Nova, a world-wise journalist and activist; and Ralph Angel, a formerly incarcerated young father in search of redemption.

After a family tragedy, the Bordelons must navigate the triumphs and struggles of their complicated lives in order to run an ailing sugarcane farm in the Deep South.

Wesley will play Nova Bordelon, the formidable journalist and activist. Her life, and that of her brother and their extended family, undergoes significant change when her sister, Charley, returns to Louisiana from Los Angeles to help run the farm.

Executive produced by OWN’s Oprah Winfrey and DuVernay, the series is based on Natalie Baszile’s novel Queen Sugar. DuVernay developed “Queen Sugar” for television, wrote its pilot episode and will direct multiple episodes of the show’s first season.

Wesley, a graduate of Julliard’s drama division, is perhaps best known for co-starring as Tara Thornton in the HBO drama “True Blood,” which ran for seven seasons. She also had a prominent recurring role on the acclaimed NBC drama “Hannibal” and recently guest starred in multiple episodes of The CW’s “Arrow.”

On the big screen, Wesley co-starred in “The Perfect Guy” opposite Sanaa Lathan, Michael Ealy and Morris Chestnut, and previously appeared on Broadway in David Hare’s “The Vertical Hour,” opposite Julianne Moore. She began her career with a starring role in the independent feature film “How She Move,” which debuted at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Wesley is a graduate of the drama division of the renowned Juilliard School.

“Queen Sugar” is produced for OWN by Warner Horizon Television.

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