EXCLUSIVE: Academy, Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (Nickel Boys, King Richard) has joined the cast of Lucky, a new limited drama from Apple TV+ starring and executive produced by Anya Taylor-Joy. Creator Jonathan Tropper also executive produces alongside Reese Witherspoon.
Based on Marissa Stapley’s bestselling novel and Reese’s Book Club pick of the same name, Lucky stars Taylor-Joy as the eponymous heroine. She is a young woman who left behind the life of crime she was raised in years ago but must now embrace her darker, criminal side one final time in a desperate attempt to escape her past.
Ellis-Taylor will play as ‘Agent Billie Rand.’
Lucky is produced by Hello Sunshine and Tropper Ink, and is created by Tropper under his overall deal with Apple TV+. He serves as co-showrunner alongside Cassie Pappas (Silo, Griselda). Witherspoon EPs alongside Lauren Neustadter for Hello Sunshine, a part of Candle Media. Anya Taylor-Joy executive produces through her production banner Ladykiller. Jonathan Van Tulleken will direct several episodes, including the pilot, and serve as executive producer.
Ellis-Taylor stars in Nickel Boys, based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, directed by Oscar-nominee Ramell Ross and produced by Oscar-winning producers Dede Gardner & Jeremy Kleiner. Earlier this year, she starred in Tina Mabry’s Supremes at Earl’s-All-You-Can-Eat opposite Uzo Aduba and Sanaa Lathan, as well as Titus Kaphar’s feature film debut, Exhibiting Forgiveness.
Additional notable credits include her portrayal of Pulitzer Prize-winner Isabel Wilkerson in Ava Duvernay’s Origin, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Birth of a Nation, Pimp, Miss Virginia and The Help.
Her performance as Oracene Price in King Richard, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She also received nominations from the BAFTA, Critics Choice, Golden Globes, and NAACP Image Awards. She won Best Supporting Actress honors from the National Board of Review, HCA, and AAFCA.
Ellis-Taylor reunites with Olyphant in Lucky, after the pair recently co-starred in FX’s Justified: City Primeval. She received two Emmy nominations for Ava Duvernay’s When They See Us (Netflix) and HBO’s Lovecraft Country; and an NAACP Award nomination for her work in The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel. She also starred in the E-One/BET miniseries The Book of Negroes, earning Critics Choice and NAACP nominations and winning a Gracie Award for Best Actress in a Made-for-TV Movie or Limited Series.
She is represented by CAA and TMT Entertainment Group.
