Exclusive: Leigh Davenport on creating and executive producing Starz's Run The World

Coming up this weekend from Starz is its new comedy series “Run the World,” created by Leigh Davenport (The Perfect Find, “Wendy Williams: The Hot Topic,” BET’s “Boomerang”) who will executive produce alongside showrunner Yvette Lee Bowser (“Living Single,” “black-ish,” Lionsgate’s “Dear White People”). The new STARZ Original Series will premiere worldwide on Sunday, May 16 across all STARZ platforms including at 8:30PM ET/PT on STARZ in the U.S. and Canada, and will air day and date internationally on the Starzplay premium streaming platform across its complete footprint in Europe, Latin America and Japan.

Set in Harlem, “Run the World” follows a group of smart, funny, and vibrant thirty-something Black women – fiercely loyal best friends – who live, work and play in Harlem. As they strive for world domination, they each navigate career highs and lows, hookups and heartbreaks that causes them to re-evaluate who they are and where they are going. At its core, it’s an authentic and unapologetic show about enviable friendship and not only surviving – but thriving together.

The series stars Amber Stevens West (“The Carmichael Show”) as “Whitney,” a perfectionist who almost always plays by the rules; Andrea Bordeaux (“NCIS: Los Angeles”) as “Ella,” an audacious romantic, who is figuring out what she truly wants both personally and professionally; Bresha Webb (“Marlon”) as “Renee,” the vivacious, soon-to-be-divorced diva with a seemingly thriving career; and Corbin Reid (“Valor”) as “Sondi,” an erudite professional who begins to reevaluate both her career and personal priorities.

“Run the World” also stars Stephen Bishop (Moneyball, “Imposters”) as “Matthew,” Tosin Morohunfola (“Black Lightning”) as “Ola,” Erika Alexander (“Living Single”) as “Barb,” Nick Sagar (“Queen of the South”) as “Anderson,” Jay Walker (“Grey’s Anatomy”) as “Jason,” and guest star Tonya Pinkins as “Gwynn” (“All My Children”).

Davenport is the creator of the STARZ Original series "Run theWorld,” which is loosely based on her life as an ambitious 20-something living in Harlem, New York. Additionally, Davenport wrote the screenplay for the upcoming Netflix film The Perfect Find starring Gabrielle Union and the screenplay for Lifetime’s Wendy Williams Biopic.

Davenport is the former Editorial Director of HelloBeautiful.com, where she led the site to record-breaking traffic as the leading site for Black women. Over the last decade, Davenport has worked in entertainment media in various capacities including writing for “The Black Girls Rock! Awards” and in unscripted production at BET, TV ONE and VH1.

STARZ recently launched its #TakeTheLead initiative, the company's comprehensive effort to deepen its existing commitment to narratives by, about and for women and underrepresented audiences.

BlackFilmandTV.com’s Wilson Morales recently spoke with Davenport on creating the series.