'American Soul' Star Sinqua Walls Joins 'Titans' Star Anna Diop in Thriller 'Nanny' (Exclusive)
Sinqua Walls, who starred in BET’s American Soul, has joined Michelle Monaghan and Anna Diop to star in Nanny, a psychological horror thriller from Stay Gold Features and Topic Studios, the companies behind movies such as The Mauritanian and Honey Boy.
Nikyatu Jusu wrote the script and is making her directorial debut on the feature that tackles timely themes of the immigrant and the American Dream while also bringing in West African folklore.
The story centers on an undocumented nanny (Diop) 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 6-year-old son from West Africa to live with her in New York. As the woman prepares for the arrival of her young son, a violent supernatural presence invades her reality, threatening the life she so painstakingly pieced together.
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Walls will play the charismatic doorman of the fancy apartment building at which the nanny works. Monaghan is already on board as the mother of the wealthy family.
The script had generated a lot of heat in certain circles. It was selected for the 2019 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Lab & Summit, with the project itself being picked for Sundance’s 2020 writer’s lab and the 2020 director’s lab. The script was also featured on the 2020 Black List.
Production is due to begin late June in New York City. Nikkia Moulterie and Stay Gold Features’ Daniela Taplin Lundberg are producing.
Exec producing are Maria Zuckerman, Ryan Heller and Michael Bloom for Topic Studios, Rebecca Cammarata of Stay Gold, Sumalee Montano and LinLay Productions’ Grace Lay. Jusu will also executive produce.
Sinqua starred as the legendary Soul Train creator Don Cornelius in BET’s American Soul, whose second season ran in 2020. The actor recently recently wrapped production on the NBC pilot At That Age from Carla Banks-Waddles, Malcolm D. Lee, Martin Chase and Universal Television. His next film, the romantic comedy Resort to Love, in which he stars with Christina Milian and Jay Pharoah, bows July 29 on Netflix.
Walls is repped by Paradigm and Artists First.
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