For the past two years, Cleopatra Coleman has starred on FOX's post-apocalyptic comedy Last Man on Earth. She's consistently kept us laughing with her role as Erica, one of a few humans to survive a deadly virus that wiped out most of the population. While you can still see Coleman flexing her comedic chops on the show, which airs on Sundays, she's signed on for yet another TV gig-and this one is allowing her to take a turn for the dramatic.
She stars as a songwriter named Sadie in the new Showtime series White Famous, which premieres tonight, Oct. 15, at 10 p.m. ET. Her character is the ex-girlfriend of the series' lead, Floyd Mooney (played by Jay Pharaoh), a young black comedian looking for his big break. The show is loosely based on the early Hollywood experiences of Jamie Foxx, who stars as himself in addition to serving as executive producer.
"Jamie's dope," Coleman recently told InStyle. "He's such a well-rounded actor. He started in comedy, but he's crossed all the way over to play so many different characters in films and he's just such a massive talent. I'd never met him before this, but I grew up watching In Living Color and all of his skits and films. I'm a big fan."
Coleman became an even bigger fan of Foxx after working together on White Famous. "I have a lot of respect for his ability to play himself-especially because he's playing a hyped-up version of himself on the show," she said. "I didn't have any scenes with him, so I didn't get to work with him in that capacity. But he couldn't be more lovely."
While Foxx's involvement in the series was one major draw for Coleman, the script itself was another. "I particularly like the refreshing quality of the relationship between my character and Jay's character, Floyd," she said. "They're exes, but they're friends. They don't hate each other, which is what we see a lot. It's actually kind of similar to my parents-when they broke up, they worked together raising me and they were always able to see eye-to-eye, at least on how they wanted to raise their kid. So that was really attractive to me."
She was also attracted to the idea of switching gears, acting-wise. "I've been doing a lot of comedy over the past few years, but I have a drama background," she said. "What I love about White Famous is that it's very funny, but I get the opportunity to really sink my teeth into some drama, as well. It kind melds both of those worlds together."