Sherri Shepherd To Headline & Produce ‘Black Don’t Crack’ ABC Comedy Pilot, Kelly Park To Direct

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Sherri Shepherd is set to star in ABC’s multi-camera comedy pilot Black Don’t Crack. Kelly Park has been tapped to direct the pilot, from writer/executive producer Regina Hicks and exec producers Viola Davis & Julius Tennon and Larry Wilmore. Shepherd will produce. ABC Signature is the studio.

Black Don’t Crack (fka Untitled Regina Hicks) follows three former sorority sisters who lost touch after college reunite during a pivotal point in their lives. They realize sometimes it’s okay to crack and when you do, no one will be there for you like your friends.

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Shepherd will play Angela Wright, a native New Yorker somewhere between 45 and death, but it’s hard to tell because “black don’t crack.” She’s a single mom who put aside her musical dreams to raise her son after her husband died. She’s been holding it down alone for years, taking care of her family instead of herself. When she is confronted with a personal crisis, she reunites with her sorority sisters to recapture the passion, ambition and sisterhood of their college glory days.

Actor-comedian Shepherd most recently starred opposite Gabriel Iglesias in the Netflix comedy Mr. Iglesias. With that series’ future unclear, Shepherd exited as a series regular at the end of the most recent season and was approached for multiple new TV projects, deciding on Black Don’t Crack. She could reprise her Mr. Iglesias role as a guest star should the Netflix sitcom is renewed.

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Shepherd also has been recurring on ABC’s Call Your Mother. Through her own production company, Faith Walker, Sherri launched her Two Funny Mamas podcast last year with fellow actress Kym Whitley. In 2020, she joined the Fox syndicated series Dish Nation as a co-host. Shepherd was co-host of ABC’s The View from 2007-15. She portrayed the first African-American version of the Evil Stepmother in the Broadway production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Her TV series credits also include Trial and Error, Rosewood, Man With a Plan, 30 Rock and How I Met Your Mother. She starred in and executive produced her own Lifetime sitcom, Sherri, and headlined her own comedy stand-up special, Sherri Shepherd: It’s My Time to Talk. Film credits include Ride Along 2, Top Five and Precious. Shepherd is repped by ICM Partners, 3 Arts Entertainment and attorney John V. Meigs Jr.

Park’s directing credits include multiple episodes of Netflix’s Country Comfort, including the pilot; ABC’s Call Your Mother; and Fox’s Call Me Kat. She is repped by CAA.

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