Ciera Payton, who stars in Tyler Perry’s White House series, The Oval, has been tapped to play Wendy Williams in an upcoming Lifetime biopic.
P-Valley star Morocco Omari has been recruited to pay Williams’ ex-husband and longtime manager, Kevin Hunter.
According to Deadline, “the authorized biopic reveals the highs and lows Williams has experienced throughout the years, from her scrappy upstart days in urban radio to the success of her own syndicated talk show.”
Payton portrays Lilly Winthrop on Tyler Perry’s The Oval, which recently completed production on its second season at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta. She also starred in Spike Lee’s Netflix series, She’s Gotta Have It.
“I was asked to self-tape for the role of Jameelah. It was a really cool experience because the tape needed to be done within a few hours so I had very little time to prepare,” Payton told Gillter Magazine last year.
The audition for the role did not go as planned.
“I couldn’t remember all the lines so I just improved some of the scenes and just decided to be myself (as cliché as it sounds). She and I are so much alike. I know what it’s like being the only one of my type in spaces that don’t hold spaces for someone like me. So that isolation and striving to do your best is something I am all too familiar with and so is Jameelah. I personally think I have a little more fight in me than Jameelah, when it comes to standing my ground on something I believe in. But she can’t fully stand up for herself like I would. She is totally an ally of and believes in Nola Darling, but I believe she had too much at risk to combat her bosses for Nola’s work. So I get it!”
