Former “Banshee” star Maya Dunbar has sold a family legal drama to NBC, Deadline reports. The actress, whose credits include Ava DuVernay’s second feature “Middle of Nowhere,” “The Mentalist,” and “Southland,” is collaborating on the project with producers Demetrius Spencer and Michael Rosenberg (“Hung”) and Universal TV.
Still untitled, the show centers centers around “the country’s most successful African American civil rights attorney and his family-run law firm,” the source summarizes. “When tragedy strikes they’re forced to dive into their own dark pasts, walking the murky line between the law and self-preservation to save their future and the legacy of their powerful family name.”
Dunbar penned the script. In 2012 she received her first writing credit for an episode of “For Richer or Poorer,” a series she starred in. According to Deadline, this project marks her first network script sale.
Other women-created series in the works at NBC include an untitled female-led doctor comedy from actress Sugar Lyn Beard (“Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates”) and “Good Girls,” a drama about suburban moms who decide to rob a store from “The Family” creator Jenna Bans.
Back in August the network announced “Female Forward,” a new annual initiative. Led by NBC Entertainment President Jennifer Salke in partnership with TV director Lesli Linka Glatter (“Homeland,” “Mad Men”), the program will provide 10 female directors the opportunity to shadow episodes of an NBC series as well as an in-season commitment to direct at least one episode of the series they shadow.
