HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 09: Actor Matt Lauria attends the 32nd Annual College Television Awards at the Renaissance Hotel Hollywood on April 9, 2011 in Hollywood, California.
Frederick M. Brown/Getty ImagesMatt Lauria is going back in time.
The former Friday Night Lights star has joined ABC’s Shonda Rhimes period drama pilot Gilded Lilys, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
The drama revolves around the opening of the first luxury hotel in New York City in 1895 and tells stories of love, treachery and disdain between the classes set against a backdrop of vicious family rivalries, scandalous secrets and conflict and co-mingling of the classes.
Gilded Lilys revolves around the Lily family, who has reigned over New York’s elite for decades but a recent family scandal has undermined their fortunes both financially and socially.
As first reported by TV Line, Lauria will play Charlie, the dashing self-aware nephew of wealthy millionaire Andrew Carnegie. He joins a cast that includes Matt Long, Blythe Danner, Maury Sterling, Brigid Brannagh, Brian F. O’Byrne, Sarah Bolger and Madeline Zima.
Gossip Girl scribe K.J. Steinberg is penning the project, with Rhimes and her Shondaland partner Betsy Beers exec producing for ABC Studios.
Lauria played the loyal and lovable Luke Cafferty in the final two seasons of NBC/DirecTV’s Friday Night Lights and co-starred on last year’s short-lived Shawn Ryan drama The Chicago Code.
He’s the third former Friday Night Lights co-star to land a pilot this season, joining Michael B. Jordan (NBC’s County), Aimee Teegarden (CW’s The Selection) and Jurnee Smollett (NBC’s Bad Girls). For FNL fans, let’s hope Zach Gilford is up next.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit
