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Robin Roberts Extends Partnership with Lifetime, Sets Mahalia Jackson Biopic Starring Danielle Brooks

Brooks on "Conan"

Following her “Lifetime Presents Variety’s Power of Women: Frontline Heroes” hosting gig and her role as executive producer on TV movie “Stolen by My Mother: The Kamiyah Mobley Story,” Robin Roberts is continuing her professional relationship with Lifetime. A press release has announced that the “Good Morning America” anchor is extending her partnership with the network, and is developing four new TV movies under her Robin Roberts Presents banner. Among those projects is “Robin Roberts Presents: The Mahalia Jackson Story,” a biopic of the titular gospel singer and civil rights activist starring Danielle Brooks (“Orange Is the New Black”).

Born in 1911 in New Orleans, Jackson “began singing at an early age and went on to become one of the most revered gospel figures in U.S. history, melding her music with the civil rights movement,” the source describes. She became famous with her song “Move on Up a Little Higher” and would go on to perform for an integrated audience at Carnegie Hall and at John F. Kennedy’s inaugural ball. “Jackson sang at numerous rallies, including the March on Washington in 1963 alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in hopes that her music would encourage and inspire racial equality.”

Jackson’s albums include “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” “Mahalia,” and “What the World Needs Now.” She won four Grammys, including the posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award and Best Soul Gospel Performance prize for “How I Got Over.” She has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame three times, for “Move On Up a Little Higher,” “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” and “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.”

Jackson died in 1972 at the age of 60.

“The Mahalia Jackson Story” hails from Rock’n Robin Productions and Lincoln Square Productions. Roberts and Linda Berman will exec produce.

Roberts has been an anchor on “Good Morning America” since 2002. She won an Emmy for her work on the long-running morning show, and another for her part in covering Obama’s first inauguration for ABC News. She has also appeared on “The View” and “20/20.”

Brooks has won three SAG Awards for her ensemble work in “Orange Is the New Black,” where she broke out as burgeoning activist Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson. Her other screen credits include “Clemency,” “Master of None,” and “High Maintenance.” Also a stage actress, Brooks received a Tony nod and a Grammy for “The Color Purple.”


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