Log In

Reset Password
BERMUDA | RSS PODCAST

Young lands regular role on Oprah show

Bermudian actor Lana Young with fellow actor Kadeem Hardison — known for playing Dwayne Wayne in A Different World (Photograph supplied)

Bermudian actor Lana Young has won a role as a series regular on the latest show on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

“It’s what every actor works for and it’s tremendous,” she said. I can’t get over it.”

The deal means Ms Young will appear on every episode of Love Is …, which follows the struggle of a couple to forge careers in the movie industry in Hollywood.

The show is scheduled to debut this summer on OWN, which reaches millions of viewers.

The drama stars Michele Weaver and Will Catlett, and is based on the lives of its creator, Mara Brock Akil, and her writer-director husband, Salim Akil.

Weaver plays would-be TV writer Nuri, while Catlett plays Yasir, who struggles to become a director, which mirrors the experiences of the Akils in Hollywood.

Ms Young will play an older Yuri in 2027, when she is aged in her 50s.

Ms Young said: “It’s a challenging role. I’m playing Mara, and also playing an older version of the younger actress playing her.

“This story has been inspired by their life events, how they met, and their rise through Hollywood as people of colour.

“It’s an inspiring, beautiful, honest love story.”

Ms Young said she had felt at ease with the cast as they rehearsed the first two episodes in Los Angeles, while Ms Winfrey watched them on Skype.

She added: “It was surreal, watching her watching us.”

Ms Young also met Kadeem Hardison, who played Dwayne Wayne on the sitcom A Different World, at the rehearsal.

Ms Young said: it was “everything I used to dream about sitting in the edge of the island, looking out to the ocean and dreaming”.

Ms Young added that, as her role is set in the future, designers can have “fun” with the design of her clothes.

She said: “My wardrobe is going to be off the hook.”