“And Just Like That” and The Morning Show” star Karen Pittman is adding to her stacked TV slate by joining Mara Brock Akil’s “Forever” alongside “The Wire” alum and “Creed” franchise stalwart Wood Harris.
Brock Akil’s highly-anticipated adaptation of Judy Blum’s 1975 Judy Blume novel “Forever” was originally ordered at Netflix in 2022 under the “Girlfriends” creator’s overall deal.
Last month, Lovie Simone and Michael Cooper Jr. were announced to star in the series, described as “an epic love story of two Black teens (Keisha and Justin) exploring romance and their identities through the awkward journey of being each other’s firsts, set in Los Angeles, 2018.”
Pittman and Harris play Justin’s parents Dawn and Eric, who are navigating parenting during a time of heightened awareness around the lack of safety for Black boys in America.
Pittman‘s Dawn is a college-educated, top executive in corporate finance with “an easy elegance that belies her loving but paranoid form of parenting. [She] might be strict at times, but it’s always out of love. She’s worked hard to give him the things he needs to succeed in life and wants him to make smart decisions.”
Harris’ Eric is described as “a restauranteur with a high school and life degree, the more lenient parent who always plays referee. Eric knows that his son feels immense academic and athletic pressure to obtain a higher education and not mess up the head start his family has worked so hard to provide him. He has a good relationship with his son, and though he’s not as intense as his wife, he has a clear set of boundaries.”
Brock Akil is adapting the novel for the screen and will also serve as showrunner and executive producer. Regina King is also on board the series as an executive producer and will direct the first episode.
Blume will also executive produce along with King, Susie Fitzgerald, Erika Harrison, Sara White, Reina King, and Shana C. Waterman.