Oprah Winfrey will be returning to television, not as a talk show host but as an actress and producer.
It has been confirmed by E! Online that Winfrey will be teaming up with Ava DuVernay of Selma for the series Queen Sugar, which is based on the novel of the same title. The series will air on the Oprah Winfrey Network, also known as OWN.
Winfrey will be the show's executive producer and will also appear in a recurring role. Meanwhile, DuVernay will be writing and directing the series and serve as executive producer alongside Winfrey. Production has been scheduled to begin later this year.
"I loved this book and immediately saw it as a series for OWN," Winfrey said in a statement. "The story's themes of reinventing your life, parenting alone, family connections and conflicts, and building new relationships are what I believe will connect our viewers to this show."
Queen Sugar, the novel written by Natalie Baszile follows the adventures of a "spirited woman" belonging to an upscale circle in Los Angeles, who leaves her sheltered and luxurious life behind in order to claim an inheritance from her recently deceased father - an 800-acre sugar cane farm in Louisiana.
"From the moment I was introduced to the book, I was captivated by the idea of a modern woman wrestling with identity, family, culture and the echoes of history," DuVernay said in a statement. "To bring this kind of storytelling to life alongside Oprah for her network is wildly wonderful. I'm excited about what's in store."
DuVernay and Winfrey have already worked together in the past for Selma. DuVernay even tweeted her excitement regarding Queen Sugar after the news broke out. "Been wanting to move like Soloway, Fincher, Soderbergh, Fukanaga, McQueen. Take your time to tell a story. Hours. Freedom. Thanks, @Oprah," she tweeted.
Though this will not be the first time Winfrey will be acting, it will be the first time she appears in a scripted series on OWN. Winfrey's acting resume include 30 Rock, Ellen, and Brewster Place. She was even nominated for an Oscar for her work in The Color Purple and she has been nominated a second time for producing Selma, a historical drama which took place in 1964 and follows the life of woman activist Annie Lee Cooper.
No other details are available regarding Queen Sugar, such as the pool of cast and production setting.
