Xosha Roquemore of The Mindy Project has joined the cast of Brian Banks, the drama recounting the true story of the wrongful imprisonment and exoneration of the onetime high school football prodigy.
Tom Shadyac is directing the feature, making it his first directorial project since 2003’s Bruce Almighty and 2007’s Evan Almighty. Aldis Hodge, Greg Kinnear and Tiffany Dupont are also among the cast, and Doug Atchison wrote the script. The project was originally incubated through Amy Baer’s development fund Gidden Media, and Baer will produce alongside ShivHans Pictures’ Shivani Rawat and Monica Levinson. Banks, Justin Brooks and Neil Strum are executive producers.
Brian Banks centers on the titular high-school football player who was committed to USC by his junior year. His life was upended in 2002 when falsely accused of rape. Despite maintaining his innocence, he was railroaded through the system and sentenced to a decade of prison and parole. With the help of the California Innocence Project, his conviction was overturned in 2012 and he achieved his NFL dream with the Atlanta Falcons’ preseason squad in 2013.
Roquemore will play Kennesha Rice, Banks’ fellow classmate who accuses him of rape.
Roquemore can be seen reprising her role of Tamra on the final season of Hulu’s The Mindy Project. Her film credits include the upcoming William Faulkner adaptation Mississippi Requiem, Whitney Cummings’ comedy The Female Brain, the indie dramedy All Nighter with J.K. Simmons and Emile Hirsch, and Lee Daniel’s dramas Precious and The Butler. She is repped by UTA and Authentic.
