Three years after narrowly escaping the murderous clutches of her half-sister Simone (Amber Riley), Monica (Raven Goodwin) is ready for a fresh start in Seattle as the host of the city’s #1 primetime investigative television program.
A Washington, DC native and current Harlem resident, award winning writer/director Shari Lynette Carpenter says she came out of the womb with a pencil in hand, a born storyteller. And her film career all began with a fan letter written to Spike Lee. During her decade and a half tenure as script supervisor to Spike, and many other notable directors, Carpenter was building her own writing and directing portfolio, making a series of shorts and indie features. Ava DuVernay invited Carpenter to direct her first episode of television on the critically acclaimed series, Queen Sugar. Carpenter has also recently directed three made for television movies, Three’s Complicated for TVOne and Single Black Female and Mary J. Blige’s Strength of a Woman for Lifetime. Her television pilot script TRANSLATE, centering a queer black love story, was a finalist for The Writer’s Lab. An NYU graduate, Carpenter is a Paramount Directors Initiative fellow and a member of the DGA Women’s Steering Committee Squad. She is a Rockefeller grant nominee, a Gordon Parks Award nominee and a Stowe Story Lab Board member and alumna.
