Justin Hillian Named New Showrunner,

Birgundi Baker Upped to Series Regular For Season Three

LOS ANGELES – September 16, 2019 – Two-time Grammy^® nominee Luke James (Star, Little), La La Anthony (Power) and Lil Rel Howery (Get Out, Bird Box) have signed on to guest star in multiple episodes of the third season of the SHOWTIME drama series THE CHI. In addition, writer Justin Hillian (Snowfall) has been named showrunner and executive producer this season. Birgundi Baker (Empire, Chicago Med), who plays Kiesha, has been upped to a series regular. THE CHI is currently in production in Chicago and will return to the network in 2020.

Luke James will play Victor “Trig” Taylor, Jake’s (Michael V. Epps) estranged older brother who wants to reunite his fractured family, but takes an unconventional approach. La La Anthony will play Dominique “Dom” Morris, a savvy businesswoman with dreams of more lucrative opportunities. Lil Rel Howery will play Zeke Remnick, the owner of Sonny's building who cares less about the community than the bottom line. 

Created and executive produced by Emmy^® winner Lena Waithe and executive produced by Academy Award^®, Emmy and Golden Globe^® winner Common (Selma), THE CHI is a timely coming-of-age story centering on a group of residents who become linked by coincidence but bonded by the need for connection and redemption. Season three cast includes Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (Queen of Katwe), Jacob Latimore (Sleight), Alex Hibbert (Moonlight), Yolonda Ross (Treme), Shamon Brown Jr., Epps and Baker.

In addition to Waithe and Common, Aaron Kaplan (A Million Little Things, The Neighborhood), Rick Famuyiwa (Dope), Derek Dudley and Shelby Stone of Freedom Road Productions, Jet Wilkinson and Justin Hillian serve as executive producers. Produced entirely in its namesake city, THE CHI is produced by Fox 21 Television Studios. To learn more about THE CHI, visit SHO.com and follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Join the conversation using #TheChi. 

SHOWTIME is currently available to subscribers via cable, DBS, and telco providers, and as a stand-alone streaming service through Amazon, Apple^®, Google, LG Smart TVs, Oculus Go, Roku^®, Samsung Smart TVs and Xbox One. Consumers can also subscribe to SHOWTIME via Amazon’s Prime Video Channels, DirecTV Now, FuboTV, Hulu, The Roku Channel, Sling TV, Sony PlayStation™ Vue, and YouTube TV or directly at www.showtime.com.

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