Stephan Jamesis set to star as iconic artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in a limited TV drama. From Boat Rocker and James and Shamier Anderson’s Bay Mills Studios, The drama will be executive produced by Katie O’Connell Marsh, Nick Nantell, and Anderson and James themselves. Holly Hubsher is overseeing the project for Bay Mills Studios.
The project will be set during the 1980s, as Basquiat emerges from being a Brooklyn-born graffiti artist to becoming a neo-expressionist painter of rock-star status in Manhattan. At just 22 years old, Basquiat became one of the youngest artists to have his work displayed at the Whitney Biennial in New York. The upcoming series will show how Basquiat rose to such prominence, as well as the subject of his art, and his experiences as a Black man in the 1980s. The series will also explore Basquiat’s close friendship with Andy Warhol and his early death. The actor who will portray Warhol is unknown.
“We’re grateful to be working with Shamier, Stephan, and the entire Bay Mills Studios team to tell the story of a visionary artist whose profound cultural influence only continues to grow with time,” Steve Lescroart, president of Boat Rocker Studios said in a statement Thursday.
James and Anderson co-founded Bay Mills Studios in 2021 and have a first-look deal with Boat Rocker through the studio. James is also starring in Boat Rocker’s TV adaptation of Hugh Howey’s sci-fi novelBeacon 23via Spectrum Originals and AMC. Anderson stars in Boat Rocker’s hit sci-fi dramaInvasionfor Apple TV+, which was recently renewed for a second season.
The If Beale Street Could Talk Actor Will Bring the Artist’s Legacy to Life
“Jean-Michel is an artist I have long revered, and someone who has greatly influenced my work over the years. To embody such a revolutionary, whose influence in the modern era of pop culture is simply immeasurable, will simply be one of the greatest honors of my career,” James said in his own statement.
The Canadian actor has starred in a string of television series as a teenager. He rose to prominence upon winning a Canadian Screen Award for Best Actor for his role as track and field sprinter Jesse Owens in the 2016 filmRace.In 2018, James starred in Barry Jenkins' acclaimed drama filmIf Beale Street Could Talk, based on the James Baldwin novel of the same name. The same year he portrayed Walter Cruz in the Amazon seriesHomecoming, for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination.
James is repped by CAA, Range Media Partners, and Norbert Abrams.
