Tony Award nominee, SAG, and Grammy Award-winning actress Danielle Brooks (Orange is The New Black) will portray gospel music icon and civil rights activist Mahalia Jackson in a new Lifetime biopic.
The film will follow Jackson’s life and career as she began singing at an early age and went on to become one of the best-known gospel singers in U.S. history.
According to Hollywood Reporter, the movie is a part of a four-film deal Lifetime has signed with Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts and her Rock’n Robin Productions. Roberts previously worked with Lifetime as an executive producer on Stolen by My Mother: The Kamiyah Mobley Story, a drama starring Niecy Nash.
Tony winner Kenny Leon (Broadway’s A Raisin in the Sun, Fences, American Son) is set to direct the biopic. This is a reunion between Leon and Brooks as they previously worked on the stage production of Much Ado About Nothing.
The news of The Mahalia Jackson Story comes following the success of Lifetime’s The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel (2020) which became the cabler’s highest-rated original movie since 2016 with 2.7 million viewers.
