EXCLUSIVE: Apple TV+’s Huey P. Newton series The Big Cigar has rounded out its cast, with Jaime Ray Newman (Dopesick), Noah Emmerich (Dark Winds), John Doman (City on a Hill), Chris Brochu (Zero Contact) and newcomer Breton Edwards Allen coming aboard in recurring roles. André Holland leads the cast, with Alessandro Nivola, Tiffany Boone, PJ Byrne, Marc Menchaca, Jordane Christie, Moses Ingram, Olli Haaskivi and Glynn Turman also set to star, as previously announced.
The six-episode limited series, based on the eponymous Playboy magazine article by Argo‘s Joshuah Bearman, tells the extraordinary, hilarious, almost-too-good-to-be-true story of how Black Panther leader Newton (Holland) relied on his best friend, Bert Schneider (Nivola) — the Hollywood producer behind Easy Rider — to elude a nationwide manhunt and escape to Cuba while being pursued into exile by the FBI.
Newman will play Roz Torrance, with Emmerich as Schneider’s brother Stanley, and Doman as his father Abe. Brochu will portray Easy Rider‘s co-writer, director, producer and star Dennis Hopper, with Allen as Black Panther Party leader Eldridge Cleaver.
The Big Cigar‘s showrunner is NAACP Image Award winner Janine Sherman Barrois (Claws, The Kings of Napa). Winning Time‘s Jim Hecht wrote the show’s first episode, with Don Cheadle directing and executive producing the first two. The show hails from Warner Bros. Television, where Barrois and her Folding Chair Productions are under an overall deal. Barrois and Hecht are executive producing alongside Bearman, Joshua Davis and Arthur Spector (Little America) through their production company Epic, a division of Vox Media Studios.
Newman is an actor and filmmaker who won an Oscar in 2019 for the live-action short Skin — which was later adapted into a feature of the same name — sharing the prize with Guy Nattiv. She has recently been seen on such series as The Time Traveler’s Wife, Dopesick, Little Fires Everywhere, Deputy and Midnight, Texas, and will next be seen on the Netflix series Grendel from Dark Horse Entertainment.
Emmerich is a Critics Choice Award winner who currently stars in the AMC/AMC+ series Dark Winds. He has also been seen on such series as Suspicion, Space Force, The Spy, The Hot Zone and The Americans, among others. Notable film credits include Jane Got a Gun, Warrior, Super 8, Trust, Sympathy for Delicious, Little Children, The Truman Show and Cop Land. The actor will next be seen in Tobias Lindholm’s Netflix drama The Good Nurse with Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne.
Doman can currently be seen on Showtime’s crime drama City on a Hill and is otherwise known for turns on such series as For Life, The Affair, Gotham, Berlin Station, Damages and The Wire, to name a few. The actor has also appeared in films like The Trial of the Chicago 7, You Were Never Really Here, Blue Valentine and The Company Men.
Brochu was most recently seen in Grindstone Entertainment Group’s thriller Zero Contact and will next be seen in the sequels Zero Contact: The Reset and Zero Contact: Pole to Pole. Other notable film credits include Dawn Patrol and Soul Surfer. The actor is best known on the TV side for his role as Luke Parker on The CW’s The Vampire Diaries, having more recently appeared on shows like The Rookie, Dynasty and The Magicians.
Newman is represented by Greene Talent, Burstein Company and Cohen & Gardner; Emmerich by Gersh and Brillstein Entertainment Partners; Doman by Paradigm; and Brochu by Innovative Artists and Semler Entertainment.
