EXCLUSIVE: Imani Lewis (First Kill) and Tanya Wright (Orange Is the New Black) have signed on to star in Killa, a horror-drama that will mark the feature filmmaking debut of writer-director Laci Dent.
Shooting in August, the film follows Asa Jones, a girl from Louisiana who wants to conquer the world of girls’ basketball. When Asa sees her shot at a college scholarship slipping away, she begins to lose herself to a captivating force.
Pic is being produced by Morgan Bentz and executive produced by Kareem Mortimer, Trevite Willis and Julia Chatwin of Best Yet Entertainment (Camera d’Or winner The President’s Cake), as well as Ellen Schmitt and Maggie Flatley of Brickyard VFX Studio.
An actress and Grammy-winning songwriter, Lewis is best known for starring in Netflix’s teen vampire series First Kill, and for co-writing the single “Water” by Tyla. Her film credits include Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, Radha Blank’s The Forty-Year-Old Version, Rashad Frett’s Ricky, Ekwa Msangi’s Farewell Amor, and Rashaad Ernesto Green’s Premature. She will next be seen in the indie Pure and is repped by Luber Roklin Entertainment, GOF Talent Management, Innovative Artists and Granderson Des Rochers.
Wright is perhaps best known for work on shows like Orange Is the New Black, True Blood and 24.
From New Orleans, Louisiana, Dent is both a filmmaker and a professor of screen arts at Pepperdine University. Her work as a screenwriter has been supported by The Black List, SFFILM, Women in Film Los Angeles and The Gotham Week Project Market. Her short film Into the Night screened at the Museum of Modern Art and received support from The Future of Film Is Female. She is repped by Donaldson, Callif, Perez LLP.
