Lela Rochon, Yvette Nicole Brown, Orlando Jones, Pooch Hall Among 16 Cast In Carl Weber’s ‘The Family Business’ New Orleans-Set Spinoff

Denise Petski
·3 min read

EXCLUSIVE: Carl Weber’s The Family Business New Orleans spinoff is rounding out its cast. Lela Rochon joins previously announced Brandon T. Jackson in a starring role, along with Ben Stephens, Pooch Hall, Quincy Brown, David Banner, Yvette Nicole Brown, Orlando Jones, Nicole Galicia, Erica Hubbard, Sarah Carter, Stan Shaw, Bern Nadette Stanis, Nayirah Teshali, Sacaiah Shaw, Jenson Atwood, AzMarie Livingston, Deric Augustine. Kayla Nicole, and Nicholas Turturro. Stephens, Stanis, Stan Shaw, Teshali, and Sacaiha Shaw guest-starred in the orginal series’ fourth season. Jackson and Rochon also serve as Associate Producers. The spinoff is currently shooting in New Orleans and Los Angeles with a premiere date on BET+ TBA.

Based on Weber’s bestselling crime drama book series, which wrapped its fourth season in October 2022, The Family Business follows the Duncans, an upstanding, tight-knit family led by L.C. Duncan (Ernie Hudson) that by day owns and operates an exotic car dealership in New York. By night, their business activities are more illicit in nature.

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Per the spinoff description: Situated between Old Town New Orleans and the prestigious suburban Parrish of Gator Lake sits a very unique underground casino and club called Midnight Blues, a flourishing staple in the New Orleans area for more than a hundred years. “The Blues,” as locals call it, is a favorite for fun-loving jazz enthusiasts, tourists and celebs who want a taste of the real New Orleans, and homebred locals who just want to kick back and gamble amongst their own.

Midnight Blues may be fun for its regulars, but the club hasn’t been enjoyable for its owners Big Shirley Duncan (Rochon), her younger brother Floyd (Hall) and her son Marquis (Jackson). They are descendants and heirs of the original plantation owner and his slave mistress, and The Blues has been in their family for generations. Now they find themselves in the middle of a turf war with an up-and-coming underworld boss, Jean LeBlanc, (Banner)whose brother winds up mysteriously dead in The Blues. Afraid for the first time in her life that her family is in real trouble and may lose The Blues, Big Shirley sends her son Marquis to Houston, Texas for his own safety.

Marquis, eager to prove his worth not only to his mother but to himself, decides to scrap Houston and board a plane to New York to enlist the help of his family—the original NY Duncans, who run an international crime syndicate. Deep in the middle of their own crisis, Vegas Duncan (Michael J White) sends his cousins, Bounty Hunter Curtis Duncan (Stephens) and his deadly assassin sister Lauren (Teshali), with some muscle down to Nola to handle more family business, Duncan style.

Nikaya D. Brown Jones serves as showrunner and executive producer alongside Weber, who also wrote all episodes. Trey Haley serves as executive producer and director. Veronica Nichols also directs some episodes. Carl Weber’s The Family Business New Orleans is produced by Tri Destined Studios and Urban Books Media.

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