ACADEMY AWARD® WINNER MORGAN FREEMAN JOINS ALL-STAR CAST OF PARAMOUNT+ ORIGINAL SERIES “LIONESS”
Freeman Joins Series Star and Executive Producer Zoe Saldaña; The Renowned Cast Also Includes Academy Award Winner and Executive Producer Nicole Kidman and Laysla De Oliveira in Academy Award Nominee Taylor Sheridan’s New Espionage Series
Series Produced by MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios Exclusively for Paramount+
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| Photo credit: Nigel Parry-CPi |
Jan. 13, 2023 – Paramount+ today announced that Academy Award® winner Morgan Freeman will join the cast of the upcoming original series LIONESS alongside series lead and executive producer Zoe Saldaña, Academy Award winner and executive producer Nicole Kidman, and Laysla De Oliveira. Freeman will play Edwin Mullins, the United States secretary of state. From Academy Award nominee Taylor Sheridan, LIONESS is produced by MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios exclusively for Paramount+.
LIONESS is based on a real-life CIA program and follows Cruz Manuelos (De Oliveira), a rough-around-the-edges but passionate young Marine recruited to join the CIA’s Lioness Engagement Team to help bring down a terrorist organization from within. Saldaña will play Joe, the station chief of the Lioness program tasked with training, managing and leading her female undercover operatives.
LIONESS will also star series regulars Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan, Austin Hébert, Jonah Wharton, Stephanie Nur and Hannah Love Lanier. The series is executive produced by Taylor Sheridan, David C. Glasser, Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari, David Hutkin, Jill Wagner, Geyer Kosinski, Michael Malone and John Hillcoat.
Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman ranks within the top 10 highest-grossing actors of all time, with his films having earned over $5 billion in cumulative ticket sales. In 2005 Freeman won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role in “Million Dollar Baby.” Freeman also received an Academy Award nomination in 1987 for Best Supporting Actor for “Street Smart,” in 1994 for Best Actor for “The Shawshank Redemption” and in 2010 for Best Actor for “Invictus.” He also won the Golden Globe for Best Actor for his performance in “Driving Miss Daisy” in 1990. Freeman has been honored with the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, the Golden Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille Award and the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award. Freeman also received the coveted Kennedy Center Honor for his distinguished acting and was honored with the Hollywood Actor Award from the Hollywood Film Festival.
In addition to his Academy Award nomination for his role as Nelson Mandela in “Invictus,” Freeman also won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor, received a Golden Globe nomination and a Broadcast Critics Association nomination. Freeman will next be seen in feature films “A Good Person,” “Paradise Highway” and “Muti.” Other feature films include “Vanquish,” “Coming 2 America,” “The Comeback Trail,” “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard,” “Angel Has Fallen,” “The Poison Rose,” “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms,” “Just Getting Started,” “Going in Style,” Paramount Pictures’ “Ben-Hur,” “Now You See Me 2” “London Has Fallen,” “Ted 2,” “Last Knights,” “Lucy,” “Dolphin Tale 2,” “Transcendence,” “The Lego Movie,” “Last Vegas,” “Now You See Me,” “Oblivion,” “Olympus Has Fallen” and “The Dark Knight Rises.” Other credits include “Dolphin Tale,” “Born to be Wild 3D,” “The Dark Knight,” “The Bucket List,” “Glory,” “Clean and Sober,” “Lean on Me,” “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” “Unforgiven,” “Se7en,” “Kiss the Girls,” “Amistad,” “Deep Impact,” “Nurse Betty,” “The Sum of All Fears,” “Bruce Almighty,” “Coriolanus,” “Attica,” “Brubaker,” “Eyewitness,” “Death of a Prophet” and “Along Came a Spider.”
In television, he was most recently seen in his Emmy-nominated guest star role in “The Kominsky Method” and the sci-fi anthology series “Solos.” He also starred in the children’s program “The Electric Company.” Freeman has served as an executive producer on “Madam Secretary” for CBS, the true drama “The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain” and “Princess of the Row.” Freeman also hosted and produced a nonfiction series entitled “Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman.” He narrated the documentary “March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step,” for which he received an Emmy nomination, “The C-Word,” “Island of Lemurs: Madagascar,” “Stem Cell Universe with Stephen Hawking” and “We the People.” Other narrations include two Academy Award-winning documentaries, “The Long Way Home” and “The March of The Penguins.”
On stage, Freeman won a Drama Desk Award and a Tony Nomination for his role as Zeke in “The Mighty Gents.” Other stage credits include the Alfred Uhry play “Driving Miss Daisy.” In 1973 he co-founded the Frank Silvera Writers’ Workshop, now in its 37th season, which seeks to serve successful playwrights of the new millennium.
LIONESS is the latest addition to Sheridan’s growing slate on Paramount+, which includes 1883, MAYOR OF KINGSTOWN, TULSA KING and 1923 as well as the upcoming series BASS REEVES and LAND MAN.
About Paramount+
Paramount+, a direct-to-consumer digital subscription video on-demand and live streaming service, combines live sports, breaking news and a mountain of entertainment. The premium streaming service features an expansive library of original series, hit shows and popular movies across every genre from world-renowned brands and production studios, including BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures and the Smithsonian Channel. The service is also the streaming home to unmatched sports programming, including every CBS Sports event, from golf to football to basketball and more, plus exclusive streaming rights for major sports properties, including some of the world’s biggest and most popular soccer leagues. Paramount+ also enables subscribers to stream local CBS stations live across the U.S. in addition to the ability to stream CBS News Network for 24/7 news and CBS Sports HQ for sports news and analysis.
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About Paramount Media Networks & MTV Entertainment Studios
Paramount Media Networks & MTV Entertainment Studios is one of the preeminent media entities in the world that connects with global audiences through its nine iconic brands – MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, CMT, Pop, Logo, The Smithsonian Channel, Paramount Network and TV Land – and its Studios arm which produces acclaimed series and movies as well as award-winning documentaries through MTV Documentary Films.
About 101 Studios
101 Studios is a global entertainment company dedicated to the acquisition, financing, development, production and distribution of high-caliber, creator-driven storytelling. 101 empowers content creators through first-class collaboration and innovation. On the television side, 101 produces Taylor Sheridan’s Emmy nominated series “Yellowstone,” “Mayor of Kingstown,” “1883” and the upcoming “George & Tammy,” “Tulsa King,” “Lioness” and “Bass Reeves.” 101 Studios oversees and manages the newly formed Sports Illustrated Studios, a content platform based on the most compelling stories, characters and moments in sports past, present and future. Upcoming projects include “Paradise Found” based on the true story of high school football coach Rick Prinz; a docuseries about the sexual abuse and cover-up at Ohio State University, co-produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures; and the docuseries “Covers,” a behind-the-scenes look at Sports Illustrated’s top cover stories of all time. SI Studios has also exclusively partnered with iHeartMedia to create and distribute original podcasts through the iHeartPodcast network. On the film side, past releases include “The Current War: Director’s Cut,” the Sundance Audience award winner “Burden” as well as the family comedy “The War with Grandpa.”
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Originally published: January 14, 2023.
