‘Moonhaven’: Emma McDonald To Headline AMC Utopian Drama From Peter Ocko

EXCLUSIVE: AMC’s Moonhaven has found its Bella Sway in Emma McDonald, Deadline has learned exclusively. She will lead the Peter Ocko utopian drama opposite Dominic Monaghan and Ayelet Zurer.

Created, produced and written by Ocko, Moonhaven is about a utopian colony on the Moon that may hold the keys to preserving life on Earth, which has become increasingly perilous. The series, produced by AMC Studios, is set to debut on AMC and AMC+ next year.

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Moonhaven follows Bella Sway (McDonald), a lunar cargo pilot and smuggler 100 years in the future who finds herself accused of a crime and marooned on Moonhaven, a utopian community set on a 500 square mile Garden of Eden built on the Moon to find solutions to the problems that will soon end civilization on Mother Earth. A skeptic in Paradise, Bella is sucked into a conspiracy to gain control of the artificial intelligence responsible for Moonhaven’s miracles and teams with a local detective to stop the forces that want to destroy Earth’s last hope before they are destroyed themselves.

Ocko will serve as showrunner and executive produces with Deb Spera.

Bella Sway, who is a rogue Han Solo-esque character, is also a veteran of the Tremendous War. When she finds herself drawn into a conspiracy about Moonhaven’s utopia, she learns that she has deeper ties to the place than she first thought.

McDonald is a young stage actress from the United Kingdom who kicked off her professional career with Pride and Prejudice at the Sheffield Crucible theater. A member of the Watermill Ensemble, the actress has taken on a number of great Shakespearean roles for the company ranging from Lady Macbeth to Titania for tours of various productions across the UK.

In 2020 McDonald played Sybil Vane in Tamara Harvey’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. She has also appeared in Season 2 of Queens of Mystery. She can also be seen in Going The Distance and Get Luke Lowe.

McDonald is repped by Neon Kite, United Agents, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher.

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