Tony winner Audra MacDonald and Miles Frost have joined the cast of Academy Award nominee Ava DuVernay’s latest film, inspired by Pulitzer Prize winner Isabelle Wilkerson’s “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.”
McDonald is a six-time Tony Award winner, having won more performances than any other actor and the only person to win in all four acting categories. A Grammy and Primetime Emmy winner, MacDonald’s screenplay credits include “A Raisin in the Sun,” “Private Practice,” “Respect” and “The Good Fight,” for which she was nominated for three Critics’ Choice Awards. . In 2016, MacDonald was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.
Meanwhile, Frost is the reigning Best Actor in a Musical winner for his portrayal of Michael Jackson in “MJ The Musical,” which marked his Broadway debut. The highly acclaimed newcomer was also nominated for a Grammy for Cast Recording.
McDonald and Frost join a star-studded cast led by Academy Award nominee Aunjanue Ellis, which includes Niecy Nash, Vera Farmiga, Nick Offerman, Connie Nielsen, Jon Bernthal and Jasmine Cephas-Jones.
Announced in October 2020, DuVernay wrote and directed “Caste,” an adaptation of Wilkerson’s popular book. Described in the New York Times as “an instant American classic and almost certainly the key nonfiction book of the American century so far,” Wilkerson’s work—and DuVernay’s subsequent film—represents the classification system. Examines what has shaped America.
DuVernay is also producing the project with frequent collaborator Paul Garnes (“Selma,” “Middle of Nowhere”) of ARRAY Filmworks. Production on the J4A-funded independent film began in December in Georgia, with additional filming scheduled to take place in Germany and India.
McDonald is repped by WME. Frost is repped by UTA and Fox Rothschild. And DuVernay is repped by Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bob & Dang and CAA, which will handle the film’s sales.
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