Dear White People: Additional Casting Announced; Netflix Production Begins

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Dear White People has some new company. Deadline reports Antoinette Robertson, DeRon Horton, John Patrick Amedori (pictured), and Ashley Blaine Featherson have been cast in the upcoming Netflix series.

Based on the film of the same name, the comedy follows “a diverse group of students of color as they navigate a predominantly white Ivy League college where racial tensions are often swept under the rug.” The cast also includes Brandon P. Bell and Logan Browning.

From Deadline:

Robertson will play Coco Conners, an economics major and bombshell who is baffled by Winchester’s hierarchy of blackness that favors natural hair over the “good hair” she bought. Unfazed by the blackface party, Coco deplores Samantha White’s “entry level black rage” and her “self-serving” Dear White People radio show.

Amedori will portray Gabe, Sam’s intellectual equal and their debates are passionate and as heated as their secret (for now) affair. Gabe genuinely loves Sam and wants their relationship to go to the next level, but feels pushed aside in the groundswell of Sam’s racially political movement.

Horton is Lionel Higgins, a self-proclaimed nerd, who becomes an unlikely hero for being the only student journalist to write a firsthand report on the blackface party that rocks Winchester. Despite this early victory, Lionel — who is still coming to terms with his sexuality — discovers that navigating between the disparate black and gay cultures on campus is his most arduous challenge yet.

Featherson is Joelle Brooks, a girl who can code switch at lightning speed and is Sam White’s best friend. While smart, funny and charming, Joelle prefers to orbit Sam’s bright star instead of shining on her own, but soon starts to covet Sam’s life.”

Production has begun on Dear White People, but Netflix has yet to set a release date.

What do you think? Have you seen the movie Dear White People? Will you watch the series?