G. Allen Johnson June 7, 2021
Jasmine Cephas Jones (center) stars in the Starz TV series “Blindspotting,” produced and co-written by Daveed Diggs (left) and Rafael Casal, who is the showrunner for the Oakland-based series. Photo: Starz
Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs are both adamant that they wouldn’t be the creative people that they are without having grown up in Oakland. The Town, as its lovingly called by locals, has a vibe they carry with them wherever they go, from the Broadway stage to film and TV shoots all over the world.
Now that the Bay Area is emerging from the pandemic, they want their hometown to become Hollywood north, and to kick-start the idea, they have combined to create a new Oakland-set TV series for Starz, “Blindspotting,” based on their 2018 movie of the same name.