Veteran director, producer and actor Salli Richardson-Whitfield is staying in business with HBO/HBO Max, with a renewal of her overall deal for two more years.
Under the new pact, Whitfield joins Adam McKay’s drama series’ Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty as executive producer and will direct half of season two. She directed the final two episodes of Winning Time in Season 1 under her initial deal with HBO. She also will continue to serve as executive producer on Julian Fellowes’ drama series The Gilded Age. Under Whitfield’s Early May production banner, Whitfield will continue to develop original series content with the intent to create stories told from unique, diverse perspectives including Motherland Bounce, rapper Nissim Black’s story, a half-hour written by Moshe Kasher for HBO Max.
As an actor, Richardson-Whitfield has starred in films include The Great White Hype opposite Samuel L. Jackson, Antwone Fisher opposite Denzel Washington and alongside Will Smith in I Am Legend. On television, Richardson-Whitfield starred in the long-running Syfy series Eureka, as well as three seasons of Stitchers on Freeform.
Behind the camera, Richardson-Whitfield has directed on the first season of Queen Sugar, along with Amazon’s Wheel of Time, Hulu’s Reprisal, Apple’s See, Netflix’s Altered Carbon, Starz’ American Gods and Survivor’s Remorse, Showtime’s The Chi, ABC’s Scandal and Black-ish, among numerous others. Her work on Luke Cage was nominated for an NAACP Award for Outstanding Directing In A Drama Series. She also received a Hugo Award nomination for her work on Wheel Of Time, and a Black Reel Award for directing Black-ish. She recently won the TV Directing award for her work on HBO’s The Gilded Age from the African American Film Critics Association. She directed four episodes of the series during the first season.