Salli Richardson-Whitfield Boards Brad Ingelsby’s Mark Ruffalo-Led HBO Task Force Drama Series As Director & Exec Producer
EXCLUSIVE: Brad Ingelsby’s upcoming HBO crime drama series starring Mark Ruffalo has added to its exec producer and director ranks.
Salli Richardson-Whitfield has joined the project and will direct multiple episodes and exec produce. She joins Jeremiah Zaga, who will direct the pilot episode plus multiple episodes as well as exec produce.
It comes as Richardson-Whitfield becomes one of HBO’s go-to directors, having recently directed episodes of Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty and The Gilded Age.
The untitled drama is set in the working class suburbs outside of Philadelphia and follows an FBI agent who heads a Task Force to put an end to a string of drug-house robberies led by an unsuspecting family man.
Mare of Easttown creator Ingelsby is writing the limited series, which forms part of his overall deal with the network.
The series is produced in association with wiip. Ingelsby exec produces alongside Zagar, Richardson-Whitfield and Ruffalo as well as Paul Lee and Mark Roybal for wiip and David Crockett. Nicole Jordan-Webber and Public Record’s Jeremy Yaches serve as co-executive producers.
Richardson-Whitfield began her career as an actor, starring in films such as The Great White Hype opposite Samuel L. Jackson, Antwone Fisher opposite Denzel Washington and alongside Will Smith in I Am Legend and on series such as long-running Syfy series Eureka, as well as three seasons of Stitchers on Freeform.
She then moved into directing, helming episodes of OWN’s Queen Sugar, Amazon’s Wheel of Time, Hulu’s Reprisal, Apple’s See, Netflix’s Altered Carbon, Starz’ American Gods and Survivor’s Remorse, Showtime’s The Chi and ABC’s Scandal and Black-ish. She was nominated for an NAACP Award for Outstanding Directing In A Drama Series for her work on Luke Cage, received a Hugo Award nomination for her work on Wheel Of Time and won the TV Directing award for her work on HBO’s The Gilded Age from the African American Film Critics Association after directing four episodes of the period drama’s first season.
Richardson-Whitfield is repped by More/Medavoy Management, Kaplan-Stahler and Innovative Artists.