Meagan Good, Whoopi Goldberg, Jasmine Guy to play key roles in Amazon Original Series, ‘Harlem’
Prime Video has released the trailer for its new comedy series, written by 'Girls Trip' screenwriter Tracey Oliver. It will premiere on Dec. 3.
Amazon Studios will premiere a new Black scripted series, Harlem, this December on the Prime Video service.
The show was created, written and executive produced by Tracy Oliver, the writer behind the hit comedy film, Girls Trip, according to a release from Amazon Studios. Meagan Good is portraying one of the principle roles, while Whoopi Goldberg and Jasmine Guy take on reoccurring roles throughout the inaugural season.
As Prime Video releases its trailer for its first season, premiering on Dec. 3, Harlem is an Amazon Original single-camera comedy set around the lives for four Black women best friends. The stylish and ambitious quartet navigate through the daily lives that include dealing with dating life and their careers in the Mecca of Black American culture, Harlem, New York.
Good stars as Camille, a Columbia University anthropology professor with difficulty in her love life, despite possessing the knowledges of several cultures’ dating norms. Grace Byers, of Empire, plays Quinn, a fashion designer who’s also a hopeless romantic with a trust fund. Shoniqua Shandai portrays Angie, Quinn’s vibrant singer/actress roommate. Rounding out the foursome is Jerrie Johnson who plays Tye, a queer dating app creator that keep things, and people, at a distance.
Camille is heard at the top of the trailer, saying “Here in Harlem, being a woman in total control of her life and love is not always easy.” The comedy displays the women of differing styles and points of view relating and supporting each other, all while living in the backdrop of Harlem, which in and of itself, appears to be a character of the show in its own way.
In the trailer, you see Goldberg, who plays a reoccurring role as Camille’s boss, department head and author Dr. Elise Pruitt, and Guy who portrays Quinn’s mother, Patricia, in the series. Also appearing in the series are Andrea Martin, Robert Ri’chard, Juani Feliz, Kate Rockwell, and Sullivan Jones.
Oliver has an extensive written resume. Oliver was an original writer on Issa Rae’s web-series The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl, is the creator and writer for BET+ series The First Wives Club, and has written for Starz series Survivor’s Remorse and ABC’s The Neighbors, according to IMDB. Girls Trip was the first film to have a Black woman screenwriter to gross $100 million in 2017, as reported by NBC News.
In addition to Girls Trip, Oliver has also written for films such as Barbershop: The Next Cut, Little, and The Sun is Also a Star. She’ll serve as co-executive producer of the Harlem, along with Amy Poehler, former Saturday Night Live actress, and producer of Netflix’s The Russian Doll, and Pharrell Williams, the 13-time Grammy-winning singer and songwriter and one-half of the hitmaking production team, The Neptunes. Williams was an executive producer and composer on Hidden Figures, and the Netflix Roxanne Shante biopic, Roxanne Roxanne.
