Candice Frederick

Back when writer-director Nikole Beckwith was a personal assistant, she cracked the root of her tooth and still went to the office for about three days straight, “muscling through” the pain. “I very honestly had tears coming down my face as I’m working,” she recalls on Zoom from her sunny Massachusetts living room. She finally went to the dentist, who was shocked that she had waited so long to see him. “I thought it would get better,” she laughs. “I think I approach every situation like that....

Sierra Teller Ornelas knows how to tell a story. She proved it over the last five years, working as a writer and producer for revered sitcoms like Superstore and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Now, the Navajo and Mexican American creative is turning to a story close to her heart as co-creator and executive producer of Rutherford Falls. The sharp new Peacock comedy centers Native characters and challenges what we’ve come to accept as the American narrative.
Ed Helms stars as museum owner Nathan Rutherfor...

Ziwe spoke to Insider about her new Showtime series, premiering Sunday, May 9 at 11 p.m. ET.
The series is a mix of at-times cringey interviews, sketches, music and "easter eggs," she said.
Ziwe sits down with celebrities such as Jane Krakowski, Fran Liebowitz, Bowen Yang and more.
The Internet is often blamed for a lot of things, but it did give us Ziwe, the deadpan, pink eyelash-wearing comedienne who, back in 2017, carved a space for herself on the world wide web with "Baited with Ziwe," w...

For Thuso Mbedu, the road that led to The Underground Railroad was marked by trauma. But like the series itself, her journey affirms the hardy human spirit (as seen in her tattoo that reads: Faith, Hope, Love).

There's a moment in The Underground Railroad that is so visceral it may linger in your mind long after you see it.

Cora (Thuso Mbedu), a formerly enslaved runaway, walks slowly toward her estranged mother (Sheila Atim) and slashes her throat with a surgical blade.

This vivid, stunning ...

To read about the rest of the Culture Shifters, including TV executive Jasmyn Lawson and spiritual adviser Emilia Ortiz, return to the full list here.
Amid a rise of “ambient TV” that doesn’t require much from its viewers, including their full attention, Cord Jefferson’s writing is not only thought-provoking but defiant. From the spiritually ambiguous quartet on “The Good Place” and the morally compromised heirs of “Succession,” to the sociopolitical torment of masked vigilantes on “Watchmen”...

The first three months of 2021 have proven that independent Hollywood, coming off a wildly successful year, shows no plans of slowing down. Entries from all over the globe—from Taiwan to the United States to Quebec—promise a brand-new slate of everything from pensive horrors and homegrown dramas to heartfelt romance and exclusive documentaries.
Here are the greatest films making waves right now as we settle into spring. While some of these picks enjoyed successful festival runs prior to 2021,...

It's another well-produced show you can skip
There are series that leave you with such well-earned satisfaction that you immediately want to recommend it to anyone who will listen, and there are others that leave such a sour taste in your mouth that you instantly want to chase it with anything good to watch. But then there is Mare of Easttown, which is merely fine. It's not particularly bad or good. Showrunner Brad Inglesby's suburban mystery series is an entry that seems just happy to be her...

Part of what makes a horror piece great is a mounting sense of dread that you can often feel but cannot see, a prickly score that guides you throughout an increasingly unsettling narrative, and just the right amount of delicacy that keeps the audience on its toes until the terror materializes. But Them, the new horror anthology series that debuts April 9 on Amazon Prime Video, is about as subtle as a 10-car pileup on I-95.
Created by Little Marvin, the first season (Them was given a two-seaso...

It was the era of the giant cell phone, TGIF nights with Family Matters and Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, and the return of the sexually empowered pop star. But even with all the cool new things the ‘90s wrought, the emergence of the 24-hour news cycle would become our fascination—and our downfall.
With the release of documentaries The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears and Kid 90, millennials at the forefront of today’s cultural reckoning have had to confront their formative years...

Warning: This story includes discussion about sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.
If given the opportunity, many of us probably wouldn’t even consider revisiting footage of ourselves as adolescents (just imagine the angst, the awkwardness, the foolishness). That’s especially so if you grew up before social media, when there wasn’t a rolling account of every single misguided thing you said and did that could quickly be subjected to the court of public opinion. But that’s what is so r...

"Judas and the Black Messiah" has far too much in common with "The Departed." Obviously, director Shaka King's film centers on Black characters, while Martin Scorsese's Boston-set entry does not. But the general concept — a crime thriller about a man covertly working with law enforcement who infiltrates a group considered to be their threat, to eviscerate its strongest force — is the same.
It's an awkward comparison to make because, in actuality, these films shouldn't have many similarities. ...

Like so many of us watching the world burn, writer-director Rose Glass has wrestled with her faith. She grew up attending Catholic schools in the U.K. and has vicars in her family, so the thought of questioning her Christianity stayed dormant for years. But now, on the cusp of her unsettling debut film, Saint Maud, she reflects on what she didn’t articulate back then: “It’s like, who’s calling me?”
Enter the titular Maud, née Katie (Morfydd Clark), a reclusive hospice worker who’s recently re...

There’s a burst of energy when Clarice co-creator Jenny Lumet hops onto Zoom for our afternoon conversation about her astute new thriller series, inspired by the indelible heroine from The Silence of the Lambs. Donning a bright smile, casual shirt, and sun-kissed hair, the New York native has the glow of someone who’s lived in Los Angeles her entire life—not just the last two years. “I've also had, like, nine Diet Cokes, so I'm pretty caffeinated,” she laughs.
Lumet has a lot of joy in her li...

The update of Shakespeare's tale of star-crossed lovers premiered at Sundance but the update falls short
Welcome to TheGrio Top 3 x DCP with Shana Pinnock -Halle Berry on the criticism she can't 'keep' a man: 'Who said I wanted to keep them? -Reporter gives up covering Biden for a relationship with his aide: ‘Didn’t think twice’ -Yahoo Sports reporter Terez Paylor is dead at 37: 'Shocked and saddened
Much about director Carey Williams’ R#J, a modern adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo a...

It’s been nearly 23 years since Lauren Ambrose played a teen in Can’t Hardly Wait who begrudgingly attends a graduation house party where she begins to contemplate the rest of her life, but the actress still likes to ponder her own journey. A lot has changed since she was in the beloved high school comedy, though, and even since she was angsty Claire Fisher on HBO’s iconic series Six Feet Under. Now, on the eerie series Servant, she delves into a side of herself that is dearest to her heart: ...