Emmy winner Glynn Turman will guest star in the new original series “Queen Sugar” from award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay (“Selma”) The series will screen on OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) and is produced by Warner Horizon Television.
Turman plays Ernest Bordelon, the patriarch and proud father of Nova (Rutina Wesley), Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) and Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe). An intelligent and loving man, Ernest is sugar cane farmer who has concealed the fact that the farm is failing from his family.
A New York native, Turman was just 13 years old when he starred on Broadway in “A Raisin in the Sun” opposite Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee. He won an Emmy in 2008 for his guest appearance on “In Treatment,” and has earned several NAACP Image Awards for both acting and directing throughout his career. Turman portrayed a mayor on the award-winning drama series “The Wire,” and has most recently appeared in “House of Lies,” where he plays Don Cheadle’s father.
Executive produced by Oprah Winfrey and DuVernay, the series is based on Natalie Baszile’s acclaimed novel Queen Sugar. DuVernay developed “Queen Sugar” for television, wrote its pilot episode and will direct multiple episodes of the show’s first season.
“Queen Sugar” chronicles the lives and loves of the estranged Bordelon siblings in Saint Josephine, Louisiana: Charley, the savvy wife and manager of an NBA star; Nova, a world-wise journalist and activist; and Ralph Angel, a formerly incarcerated young father in search of redemption. After a family tragedy, the Bordelons must navigate the triumphs and struggles of their complicated lives in order to run an ailing sugarcane farm in the Deep South. “Queen Sugar” is produced for OWN by Warner Horizon Television. The executive producers are Oprah Winfrey and Ava DuVernay. The series is based on the book by Natalie Baszile.
