Above: America Ferrera. Below: Valarie Kaur and Sharat Raju.
Film/Stage
New NBC TV Legal Drama To Feature Sikh-American Female Lead
NELLIE ANDREEVA
Former ‘Ugly Betty’ star America Ferrera and executive producer Teri Weinberg have teamed to launch a new production company. The yet-to-be-named banner has signed a first-look deal with Universal TV and has set up its first project under the pact, a legal drama, with former ‘Revenge’ showrunner Sunil Nayar, at NBC.
Written by Nayar, the yet untitled Law School Project centers on Amrita Kaur, a Sikh woman and an optimistic law student who works alongside her peers at a renegade student-run law firm to take on the country’s biggest issues and institutions, giving voice to the voiceless.
Nayar, Ferrera and Weinberg executive produce with Drew Brown. Valarie Kaur is co-executive producer. Tafari Lumumba and writer-director Sharat Raju (Scandal) are supervising producers. Universal TV is the studio.
Ferrera, who won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for playing the title character in ‘Ugly Betty‘, currently stars as Amy on NBC/Uni TV’s ‘Superstore‘, on which she also served as a producer. Ferrera has stayed in touch with Weinberg following the end of the ABC dramedy. Two years ago, they collaborated on drama ‘Social Creatures‘, which was in the works at ABC Family/Freeform.
Nayar started off as an assistant to Tom Fontana on ‘Homicide: Life on the Street’ before landing his first writing gig on Fontana’s HBO prison drama ‘Oz‘. He spent more than five years on ‘CSI: Miami‘, rising to an executive producer, and also served as exec producer on ABC’s ‘Body of Proof’ and ‘Revenge‘.
Through her Yellow Brick Road Prods, Weinberg executive produced National Geographic’s popular ‘Killing’ movie franchise and the miniseries ‘Saints and Strangers‘.
Ferrera is repped by CAA, B Company and Peikoff Mahan. Nayar is repped by CAA and attorney David Fox.
[Courtesy: Deadline]
November 9, 2017