Michigan native cracks mystery with ‘Diarria from Detroit’

Diarra Kilpatrick developed television shows for FX, Amazon and Showtime. None of them got made. She finally realized that a new approach was needed and, in the end, it was the obvious choice.

She finally approached the cable channel BET with her ideas for a Black female-driven series. The company was far more open to her pitch and “Diarra from Detroit” became the first scripted series produced by BET Studios.

The series that was not only created by Kilpatrick but also features her in the starring role follows a divorcing schoolteacher who refuses to believe she’s been ghosted by her rebound Tinder date. Her search for the missing man pulls her into a decades-old mystery involving the Detroit underworld.

Her co-workers, friends and lovers become unlikely allies as she tracks down answers. The initial three episodes are available on the streaming service BET+. New episodes will be available each Thursday.

“I really made this because I want people to feel entertained.  I think the world is so crazy right now, and as a mom, when I put my kid to sleep, I have about one hour with my husband to watch something before I have to do my meditation and do this and that,” Kilpatrick says. “And that one hour is so precious to me.

“When I was younger, I could watch ten hours of bad television.  Now, I just want to watch something that I want to talk to my friends about later, that I want to engage with and see if anybody on social is talking about it.”

Kilpatrick describes the series as being a mystery/comedy but is sure others will see it differently.

“I think some of my favorite comedies though are dramas with jokes.  I think that’s how Woody Allen describes his work,” Kilpatrick says.

The series is a love letter to Detroit (although the series was filmed in New Jersey) and its people. As a native of the Michigan city, Kilpatrick has met what she describes as “some of the most fascinating and distinctive people” there.

Kilpatrick comes to the project with a long resume of work as a producer, writer and actor. Her TV roles have included “Perry Mason,” “The Last O.G.” and “American Koko.”

The show features a predominantly Black cast, but Kilpatrick wants all races and sexes to give the show a chance. She’s getting some help with that approach from Kenya Barris who is an executive producer. Barris has had success creating shows – such as “black-ish” and “America’s Next Top Model” – that attracted a wide audience.

Barris was excited to be part of the show because he has been a fan of detective shows since he would sit with his grandmother and watch “Perry Mason,” “Matlock,” “Columbo” and “Murder She Wrote.”

“I watched those shows through her point of view, which actually made them Black shows unintentionally because of the commentary that she had on it.  She was like Black Twitter housed right next to me,” Barris says. “So, the first thing that I created was also a detective show.  It was a satire about a woman trying to solve America’s race problem one case at a time, and we made that show for ABC Digital, and Viola Davis produced it.

“They kept asking me, ‘Do you have something more commercial?’  It kind of took me a little bit longer to figure out what that meant.”

Barris liked the idea Kilpatrick wanted to make a series that had something new to say. He credits BET for taking a chance on the project because it is so different than anything the company has done before. His prediction is “Diarria from Detriot” will be the start of a rich tradition at BET at taking chances with productions.

Once Kilpatrick found a studio that saw her vision and linked with an executive producer who has a strong TV track record, the next thing she had to do was find the right cast. Joining her in the series as Phylicia Rashad, Jon Chaffin, Shannon Wallace, Morris Chestnut, Claudia Logan, DomiNique Perry and Bryan Terrell Clark.

“I was really excited to work with this cast and to reveal just sort of more complexities of blackness. I’m a complex woman, born of complex women, and I tried to put all of that, even though the circumstances she’s in are very much fictional, in case anybody was wondering,” Kilpatrick says. “I really want people to take away from her is that she’s quirky and sexy.  She’s strong and vulnerable.  She’s assured and discerning and incredibly naïve.

“And there’s room for all of that in a Black woman but also a Black woman in an urban environment where we might expect her to be sort of one-dimensional in the way that we’ve seen Black women before. “

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