Actress-singer Pepi Sonuga (Famous In Love) is set to join the ranks of rapper turned actress Eve and Power Alum Naturi Naughton. According to Deadline, Sonuga is the latest to be tapped for ABC’s hour long pilot Queens.
Zahir McGhee (Scandal, Private Practice), Sabrina Wind (Skyward), and ABC Signature are set to produce the new series. This won’t be Sonuga’s first time working with McGhee and ABC Signature. She was featured in their 2020 drama pilot Harlem’s Kitchen.
Queens, written by McGhee and directed by Tim Story (Tom & Jerry, Ride Along) is about four estranged and way out of touch women in their 40’s, who come back together to form a group they dissolved years ago when they were kids. Two of them Eve and Naughton reunite to recapture their fame and regain the swagger they once had as the 90s hip hop group The Nasty Bitches.
In the upcoming series, Sonuga plays “Lil Muffin” aka Lauren Rice, a sweet young woman from Atlanta. More famously known as Lil Muffin she is a brash and colorful emcee, according to Deadline. Ever since her record “Candy Cane” dropped she has been on an unstoppable rocket ship to superstardom. Hip hop’s latest it girl Lil Muffin has it all, bags of money, droves of fans, and wild style capable of accessing everything under the sun. However, she is not the mastermind of her success. Instead she is in the backseat as a cadre of men who care more about the gravy train than her own well being steer her career and her image. Fame always takes a toll. Muffin finds unexpected support from a group of women she links up with who happen to be the Nasty Bitches. The female group affords her the sisterhood in the industry that she has been craving. The Nasty Bitches have a unique ability to connect with her because they lived that life themselves 20 years ago.
Sonuga recently portrayed a young Angela Bassett (Marvel’s Black Panther) on Fox’s emergency drama 9-1-1. She also starred in Jonas Cuaron’s (Gravity) Showtime pilot Hombre opposite Gael Garcia Berna (Coco), according to Deadline. Sonuga was featured as a season regular on Starz’ Ash vs the Evil Dead and Freeform’s Famous In Love. On the film side, her credits include Under the Silver Lake, and the Blumhouse/Netflix feature Thriller.