Patricia Williams has a lot to say about her life, and on her new BET+ series, The Ms. Pat Show, she will, which may surprise you.
Willams began her profession as a comedian after experiencing a series of misfortunes.
Rabbit, the comedian’s 2017 biography, chronicles her life before she made her television debut. She said that she was born into poverty in Atlanta and was abused by her mother’s love when she was ten years old.
She was in an abusive relationship with a 20-year-old when she was 12 years old.
She gave birth to her first and second children at the ages of 14 and 15, respectively, and began selling cocaine to support them. Then, at the age of 16, she was shot, and at the age of 18, she was arrested and shot a second time. So it’s reasonable to conclude that the actress has had a difficult existence.
Her real-life experiences as an ex-convict, mother, and comedian are currently being turned into a sitcom. With comedy and strong language, the show explores the cultural shock of migrating from Atlanta’s ghettos to the suburbs of Indiana.
Williams and writer Jordan E. Cooper recently appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast to discuss the show’s creation.
She’s Working on Her Own Sitcom
She and award-winning playwright Cooper discussed the process of developing it throughout the interview.
Williams reminisced about his time working with the 26-year-old author. Lee Daniels, the executive producer, persuaded her to hire Cooper, she revealed. She was initially hesitant, but she kept an open mind and flew over to see Cooper perform.
Williams said she dealt with people based on their energy level. And when she saw Cooper, she recognized he was a wonderful person and hired him, though she cautioned him that Hollywood would not be kind to him.
As a result, Williams set out to assist Cooper in obtaining employment. She revealed that she and Daniels devised a strategy to create a pilot together as Daniels was frantically trying to hire Cooper for the show.
They developed the pilot in eight days but kept it nameless to guarantee there were no prejudices (Hollywood’s biases against rookies).
Cooper was hired right away after the pilot was put out.
Show Specifics
The family sitcom premiered on August 12, but according to Daniels, getting the program off the ground wasn’t simple.
The show’s creative team struggled to find a place for the series, according to the director. It was supposed to premiere on Fox with a new writer, but it was shifted to Hulu in the fall of 2019 and subsequently to BET+ in 2020.
J. Bernard Calloway, who plays Ms. Pat’s miserly husband, and Tami Roman, who plays her sister, are among the cast members. Ms. Pat’s children, played by Theodore Barnes, Briyana Guadalupe, Vince Swann, and Brittany Inge, are also featured.
Along with Brian Grazer, President of Imagine Television, Samie Kim Falvey, Anthony Hill, and Cooper, who wrote the pilot, Williams and Daniels will executive produce the project.
