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“Moonlight” Co-Writer Tarell Alvin McCraney Brings His Truth to TV With Oprah's Help

"I think every piece that I’ve ever made is always somehow rooted in my own truth."

In 2017, Tarell Alvin McCraney took home an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Moonlight, the Best Picture winner based on McCraney's semi-autobiographical play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. Now, the creator is bringing a new drama to Oprah Winfrey's OWN network also inspired by his childhood.

Executive produced by Oprah Winfrey and Michael B. Jordan, David Makes Man stars Akili McDowell as David, a brilliant young man who is haunted by the death of his closest friend and is relied on by his hardworking mother to find a way out of poverty. He must choose between the streets that raised him or the higher education that may offer him a way out, according to OWN. Phylicia Rashad also stars.

“I think every piece that I’ve ever made is always somehow rooted in my own truth,” McCraney told Deadline. “In examining a certain part of my life, when I lived in that place called Homestead—which is like 50 miles south of Miami—I wanted to talk about a moment when I had to make decisions of what my life would be. That’s weird, for a 12-year-old to be thinking that they had to make these life-altering decisions right then, and it just dawned on me that that wasn’t just happening to me; that it was happening to many people."

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, McCraney recalls Winfrey saying his TV show pitch was the best she had ever heard.

McCraney, 38, made his Broadway debut this month with Choir Boy, a powerful, coming-of-age show about a gay gospel choir leader attending an elite, black, all-male prep school.

A premiere date for David Makes Man has not be announced.

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