Zakiya Dalila Harris (born October 20, 1992) [1] is an American author. She is best known for her bestselling debut novel The Other Black Girl , which was adapted into a television series for Hulu. [2] [3]
Harris was born and raised in Hamden, Connecticut. [4] Her father, Frank Harris III, is a professor at Southern Connecticut State University and former journalist for the Hartford Courant . [5] [6] [7] Her sister is writer and NPR podcaster Aisha Harris. [8]
Harris received her bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her MFA in nonfiction creative writing from The New School. [9]
Harris spent nearly three years at Knopf Doubleday, an imprint of Penguin Random House, first as an editorial assistant then as assistant editor, before leaving to write her debut novel The Other Black Girl . Her experiences working as an editor inspired the novel. [10] Her essays and book reviews have appeared in Cosmopolitan , Esquire , Guernica , and The Rumpus . [11]
The New York Times reported that Simon & Schuster's Atria imprint won the rights to The Other Black Girl in a deal valued at more than $1 million after a bidding war between 14 publishers. [10] The Other Black Girl was released on June 1, 2021 and received positive critical reception from outlets such as the Washington Post and Kirkus Reviews . [12] [13] The Guardian described it as "a glimpse into the publishing world and its original take on black professional women striving to hold on to their authentic selves and their stresses." [14]
A television adaptation of the novel for Hulu was put into development in 2020 and later ordered to series in August 2022. [15] [3] The series is produced by Onyx Collective and Temple Hill Entertainment. Harris and Rashida Jones, who both serve as executive producers on the series, co-wrote the pilot episode together. [16] The series stars Sinclair Daniel, Ashleigh Murray, Brittany Adebumola, Hunter Parrish, Bellamy Young, Eric McCormack, and Garcelle Beauvais. [17] [18] [19] The 10-episode first season of the series premiered on September 13, 2023. [20]
Harris resides in Brooklyn, New York. [10]
Garcelle Beauvais is a Haitian-American actress and television personality. She is best known for her starring roles in the sitcom The Jamie Foxx Show and the crime drama series NYPD Blue. She also appeared in the films Coming to America (1988) and its sequel (2021), White House Down (2013), and Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). In 2020, Beauvais became a main cast member of the reality television series The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. She also co-hosted the daytime talk show The Real alongside Adrienne Bailon, Loni Love, and Jeannie Mai from 2020 to 2022 for its final two seasons.
Bellamy Young is an American actress, producer and singer, best known for her role as Melody "Mellie" Grant in the ABC drama series Scandal (2012–2018). For her performance, she won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2014. She also starred in the Fox series Prodigal Son (2019–2021).
Hunter Parrish Tharp is an American actor and singer. He is known for playing the role of Silas Botwin in the Showtime series Weeds and for his performances in the Broadway productions of Godspell in the role of Jesus and Spring Awakening as Melchior.
Ashleigh Murray is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her breakthrough role as Josie McCoy, the lead singer of the fictional band Josie and the Pussycats, on The CW television series Riverdale, which she starred in from 2017 to 2019. Murray reprised her role as Josie McCoy in the Riverdale spin-off series Katy Keene (2020) and returned to Riverdale as a guest star in 2021 and 2023. Murray has also starred in the films Deidra & Laney Rob a Train (2017) and Valley Girl (2020), as well as the television series Tom Swift (2022) and The Other Black Girl (2023).
Langston Kerman is an American actor, writer, and comedian. He has acted in programs including Insecure, High Maintenance, Bless This Mess, and The Boys. Kerman is a writer and co-star on HBO Max's South Side. His first comedy album, Lightskinned Feelings, was named to Vulture's list of 10 Best Comedy Albums of 2018.
How I Met Your Father is an American sitcom created by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger that aired from January 18, 2022 until July 11, 2023 on Hulu. It is a spin-off of How I Met Your Mother. The series, which stars Hilary Duff, Christopher Lowell, Francia Raisa, Suraj Sharma, Tom Ainsley, Tien Tran, and Kim Cattrall, follows the main character, Sophie (Duff), and her group of friends in Manhattan. As a framing device, Sophie (Cattrall), in the year 2050, recounts to her unseen son the events that followed meeting his father in January 2022, and how they ultimately had him. In September 2023, the series was canceled after two seasons.
The Other Black Girl is a 2021 novel by Zakiya Dalila Harris. The debut novel follows a woman who is the only Black person working at a publishing company. It was sold at auction to Atria Publishing Group for over $1 million. A television series based on the novel premiered on Hulu on September 13, 2023.
Brittany Adebumola is an American actress. On television, she is known for her roles in the Netflix series Grand Army (2020), the CW reboot of 4400 (2021), and the Hulu series The Other Black Girl (2023).
Tell Me Lies is an American drama streaming television series created by Meaghan Oppenheimer, based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Carola Lovering. The series was released on Hulu on September 7, 2022. It follows a relationship between Lucy Albright and Stephen DeMarco as it unfolds over the course of 8 years after meeting at college. In November 2022, the series was renewed for a second season.
Onyx Collective is a content brand owned and operated by Disney Entertainment, which primarily consists of projects from creators of color and other underrepresented groups. The brand was first launched on May 17, 2021, with several projects under development for Hulu, Disney+, and Star+.
Koala Man is an Australian-American superhero animated sitcom created by Michael Cusack for Hulu. Developed by Cusack, Dan Hernandez, and Benji Samit, the series premiered on January 9, 2023 on Hulu in the United States and on Disney+ in Australia.
Tara Duncan is an American executive in the entertainment industry. She is president of Onyx Collective, which focuses on content creators of color and underrepresented voices, and is known for her role in diversifying content. Duncan previously served as president of Freeform, Disney's cable network for Gen Z, from 2020–2023. As of 2021, Duncan was one of only a few entertainment industry executives in the United States who is black.
UnPrisoned is a 2023 comedy television series created by Tracy McMillan, starring Kerry Washington and Delroy Lindo. The series is produced by Onyx Collective. The series premiered on Hulu on March 10, 2023. It received generally positive reviews from critics.
The Other Black Girl is an American comedy-drama mystery thriller television series based on the 2021 novel of the same name by Zakiya Dalila Harris. The first season of the series premiered on Hulu on September 13, 2023. The series focuses on Nella Rogers, who is an editorial assistant at Wagner Books and the only Black woman working for the company until the hiring of Hazel-May McCall. Following the hiring of Hazel, strange occurrences lead to Nella discovering the truth about Wagner's disturbing history. The story is inspired by Harris' own personal experiences working as an editor and addresses various forms of racism in the corporate world.
Anne Rice's Immortal Universe is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on the 2020s AMC television series adaptations of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and Lives of the Mayfair Witches supernatural horror novel series. The books, which originated with the 1976 novel Interview with the Vampire, follow vampires and witches in the ancient and modern world. The franchise includes two television series, Interview with the Vampire and Mayfair Witches. A third is in development, focused on the Talamasca, a secret society in Rice's novels who investigate the paranormal.