Tons of casting news! I’m only spending a sentence on each; click the links to learn more about each item.

Disney Channel and Disney XD are holding casting calls looking for diversity! 

Marisol Nichols joins Criminal Minds

As I wrote in my NBC casting scorecard, Brian Tee is now a Chicago Med cast member

Benicio Del Toro might be a villain for Star Wars: Episode VIII

Mekia Cox and Aurora Perrineau have joined Secrets and Lies and Blood & Oil, respectively. Charlie Barnett also joins Secrets and Lies

Tyler Perry puts on his acting hat again and has joined the cast of Brain on Fire

The Roots revival now has Questlove as its music producer

Jimmy Akingbola has joined Arrow as Baron Reiter/Baron Blitzkrieg

LeBron James has signed an “unprecedented” agreement with Warner Bros. for TV, film  and digital projects.

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Shannyn Sossamon and Lance Gross have joined Sleepy Hollow as Pandora and Abbie’s Quantico boss, respectively.

Kendrick Sampson has joined How to Get Away with Murder

Samira Wiley will star in film based on the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese

Will Smith and his Overbrook Entertainment will produce high school comedy Ultra

Ludacris has joined the cast of Empire

Jay Z, Will Smith and Aaron Kaplan are spearheading an HBO miniseries on Emmett Till

Michael Beach joins The 100

John Legend and his Get Lifted production company will executive produce Underground

Issa Rae’s HBO comedy is now casting!

Naomi Campbell has joined American Horror Story

Will Packer sells his Atlanta-based drama to NBC

Queen Latifah and Mary J. Blige will play the Wiz and the Wicked Witch of the West, respectfully, in The Wiz. I said I’d only have a sentence for each of these, and I don’t want to deny Blige her paycheck, but can Blige handle singing “Don’t Nobody Bring Me No Bad News”? I mean, Mabel King was a powerhouse singer. I’m just sayin’.

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Lupita Nyong’o will star in Dania Gurira’s Libera civil war-set dramatic play Eclipsed. 

 

Wyatt Cenac will star in TBS’ alien comedy

Archie Panjabi joins Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Starz develops Havana-set drama with Antonio Banderas

 

Ludacris and Gina Rodriguez join Josh Peck hosting the Teen Choice Awards