New CBC drama The Porter reveals starring cast members
With production set to begin this spring in Winnipeg, The Porter has announced who will be taking lead roles in the series.
The actors include Aml Ameen (I May Destroy You), Ronnie Rowe Jr. (Pretty Hard Cases) and Mouna Traoré (The Umbrella Academy).
The eight-episode series is inspired by real events during the 1920s, following the journeys of those who cross borders and pursue their ambitions in the fight for liberation on and off the railways that crossed North America. The Porter will highlight the moment when railway workers from both Canada and the United States joined together to give birth to the world's first Black union.
Set primarily in Montreal, Chicago and Detroit, The Porter depicts the Black community in St. Antoine, Montreal, known at the time as "Harlem of the North," with members from Canada, the Caribbean, and the U.S. via the Underground Railroad and through the Great Migration, thrown together north and south of the colour line, in an era that boasts anything is possible.
Ameen will portray Junior Massey, an intelligent, smooth, ambitious and fearless risk taker and war veteran employed as a porter with the Transcontinental Railroad.
Rowe Jr. plays fellow porter Zeke Garrett, Junior's friend and war buddy, who is calm, thoughtful and persistent to a fault in his fight for integration.
Traoré will play Marlene Massey, Junior's wife who works with the Black Cross Nurses, an offshoot of Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association, risking resources and reputation to help her community and reach her full potential.
The Porter is an original series from CBC and BET+, originated and created by Arnold Pinnock (Altered Carbon) and Bruce Ramsay (19-2), with Annmarie Morais (Killjoys), Marsha Greene (Mary Kills People) and Aubrey Nealon (Snowpiercer). CBC and BET have previously collaborated on the notable series The Book of Negroes.
Morais and Greene are set to be the showrunners and executive producers of the series, with Charles Officer (Coroner) and R.T. Thorne (Utopia Falls) directing, and Pinnock and Ramsay co-producing.
More casting announcements will be revealed soon.