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Black-ish creator Kenya Barris has found the perfect person to star in his first Netflix series: himself.
Barris will lead Black Excellence opposite Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation), TVLine has learned. The single-camera comedy, which kicks off the executive producer’s lucrative multi-year production deal with the streamer, was ordered to series Friday.
At first glance, it appears that Barris will mine his family’s experiences for the new series the way he did for Black-ish. Black Excellence‘s official logline states that it is “inspired by Barris’ irreverent, highly flawed, unbelievably honest approach to parenting, relationships, race and culture” and “looks to pull the curtain back and reboot the ‘family sitcom’ in a way we’ve never seen before.”
Black Excellence‘s executive producers include Barris, Jones and Black-ish‘s Hale Rothstein. Barris’ Khalabo Ink Society will produce.
This will be Barris’ first meaty acting role: His two previous credits include the Omari Hardwick-Meagan Goode movie A Boy. A Girl. A Dream. and a black-ish Season 2 cameo as “Grown Man Baby Coach” (which you can watch below).
Jones’ other acting gigs include The Office, Web Therapy and Angie Tribeca, which was cancelled Thursday. She also guest-stars on black-ish as Bow’s sister, Santamonica/Santamaria.
When Barris’ Netflix deal was announced in August 2018, he already had stepped down as showrunner of black-ish, though he remains an executive producer on that series and its spinoffs grown-ish and the recently ordered mixed-ish. He also has a deal for an upcoming Freeform comedy titled Besties.
