Anna Diop set as lead in Nikyatu Jusu’s feature directorial debut ‘Nanny’
Stay Gold Features and Topic Studios have announced the casting of Anna Diop (Jordan Peele’s Us and HBO Max’s “Titans”) as the title character in their latest feature film, NANNY. It was previously announced that Stay Gold Features, Topic Studios and LinLay Productions had teamed up to finance and produce. The film marks Nikyatu Jusu’s highly anticipated feature directorial debut, the script for which she also penned.
A timely thriller that puts the immigrant story front and center, NANNY follows Aisha (played by Diop), an undocumented nanny who takes a job caring for the privileged child of a wealthy Manhattan family on the Upper East Side in the hopes that she may earn enough money to bring her six-year-old son from West Africa to live with her in New York. As Aisha prepares for the arrival of her young son, a violent supernatural presence invades her reality, threatening the “American Dream” she so painstakingly pieced together. The film’s use of West African folklore breathes fresh air into the genre, illustrating ways in which this aspirational dream can torment one’s reality.
Selected as a screenplay for the 2019 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Lab & Summit, NANNY was chosen for Sundance’s 2020 Writer’s Lab and the 2020 Director’s Lab. The script was also featured on the 2020 Blacklist. Additionally, the project has been recognized as part of the 35 projects chosen for the 2020 Creative Capital Awards.
The film will be produced by Nikkia Moulterie (Random Acts of Flyness, Suicide By Sunlight) and Stay Gold Features’ Daniela Taplin Lundberg (Harriet, Honey Boy).
Executive producing are Maria Zuckerman, Ryan Heller and Michael Bloom for Topic Studios (The Mauritanian, Luce, Leave No Trace); Rebecca Cammarata (Harriet, Honey Boy) of Stay Gold Features; Sumalee Montano (This is Us); and Grace Lay of LinLay Productions. Jusu will also executive produce.
Production is set to begin in June in New York City on June 28, 2021.