Exclusive: Salli Richardson-Whitfield on directing & executive producing Season 2 of HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty
Currently playing on HBO and Max is season two of its acclaimed series WINNING TIME: THE RISE OF THE LAKERS DYNASTY, executive produced by Adam McKay and Kevin Messick for Hyperobject Industries; showrunner, executive producer, writer, and co-creator Max Borenstein; executive producer Scott Stephens; executive producer, writer, co-creator Jim Hecht; executive producer and writer Rodney Barnes; executive producer and director of episodes 1, 6, and 7 Salli Richardson-Whitfield; executive producer Jason Shuman.
Season two will continue to explore the professional and personal lives of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers. This season hones in on the period just after the Finals in 1980 through 1984, culminating in the first professional rematch of the era’s greatest stars: Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
The series stars John C. Reilly, Quincy Isaiah, Adrien Brody, Jason Clarke, Gaby Hoffmann, Jason Segel, Hadley Robinson, DeVaughn Nixon, Solomon Hughes, Tamera Tomakili, Brett Cullen, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Spencer Garrett, Molly Gordon, Joey Brooks, Delante Desouza, Jimel Atkins, Austin Aaron, McCabe Slye, Thomas Mann, Gillian Jacobs, with Michael Chiklis and Rob Morgan.
For Richardson-Whitfield, whose film and TV career as an actress included roles in A Low Down Dirty Shame, The Great White Hype, Antwone Fisher, I Am Legend, the Syfy series Eureka, and I Will Follow, the Chicago, Illinois native has found equal success behind the scenes as a director and executive producer.
For over a decade, Richardson-Whitfield has been worked as director on numerous TV projects such as Eureka, Queen Sugar, Underground, Chicago Med, Luke Cage, Black Lighning, Black-ish, The Chi and Wheel of Time to name a few.
With her last two projects being HBO’s The Gilded Age, she served as an executive producer and director of four of its nine episodes, and on Season Two of Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, she was promoted to an executive producer and directed three of its seven episodes.
Blackfilmandtv.com’s Wilson Morales spoke Richardson-Whitfield on coming back to not only to direct Episodes 1, 6, and 7 of Winning Time Season 2, but also come in as an EP. She previously had directed the finale of Season One of the series.