Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black will serve up scandal and stars when Part 1 of the 16-episode drama hits Netflix today October 24th.
The upcoming show is part of Perry’s creative partnership with Netflix, in which he’ll write, direct, and produce films and series under a multi-year first-look deal, including Mea Culpa, which premiered in February.
“I was told many times over many years that Black entertainment doesn’t travel throughout the world,” the Hollywood heavyweight tells Tudum. “So, to have Netflix continue to disprove that over and over with everything I’ve put on the platform has been phenomenal.”
Perry’s previous films with Netflix include A Jazzman’s Blues, an epic about forbidden love that made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival; A Madea Homecoming, the 12th installment of the billion-dollar Madea franchise,
Mea Culpa, starring Kelly Rowland, and the thriller A Fall from Grace. Will Areu, Angi Bones, and Tony Strickland also produce Beauty in Black for Tyler Perry Studios.
What is Beauty in Black about?
The new series follows two women on very different life trajectories on a collision course toward each other.
Taylor Polidore Williams (Divorce in the Black, Snowfall) plays Kimmie, who struggles to make ends meet after her mother kicks her out, while Mallory — played by Crystle Stewart (For Better or Worse, Acrimony) — finds success running her own business. Eventually, they find themselves entangled in each other’s lives.
Set in Atlanta, the story brings together a wealthy Black family atop a hair care dynasty and an exotic dancer caught up in the seedy underbelly of a famed Magic City strip club.
“The hair care business here is huge [and] Magic City is huge, and I was like, ‘What happened if those worlds collided — the stripper world and this hair care business?’ ” says Perry, adding that the takeaway from Part 1 of the series is, “Never ever underestimate the power of the underdog.”
Although Perry found inspiration from “dual strip clubs around” Atlanta in the ’90s and is familiar with families of real-life hair care dynasties, the story itself is pure fiction and designed “to entertain.” He says, with this series, he “wanted to have some fun.”
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