Garcelle Beauvais Set for Lead Role in Lifetime Movie ‘Black Girl Missing’

Garcelle Beauvais attends as Glamour celebrates the 2022 Women of the Year Awards
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Glamour

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Garcelle Beauvais has landed the lead role in the upcoming Lifetime original movie Black Girl Missing, part of the network’s Stop Violence Against Women campaign.

According to Deadline, Beauvais will star in and executive produce the film, which is inspired by real stories of missing women of color. The NYPD Blue alum will portray a mother named Cheryl, whose daughter, Lauren (Iyana Halley), goes missing and is dismissed by authorities and media as a runaway.

At the same time, the police and press heavily focus on another missing girl, who is white, while Cheryl and her 15-year-old daughter Marley (Taylor Mosby) enlist the help of a dedicated community of amateur internet sleuths to try to find Lauren.

The movie will also feature the Black and Missing Foundation, as Cheryl discovers the disparity in how missing persons of color cases are treated with a significant lack of media attention and law enforcement resources. Derrica and Natalie Wilson, the founders of the Black and Missing Foundation, serve as consultants on the project.

Black Girl Missing is written by Kale Futterman (Samir) and directed by Delmar Washington (Outsiders). Tim Johnson, Stacy Mandelberg, Gordon Gilbertson, Jason Egenberg, Richard Foster, and Chet Fenster serve as exec producers alongside Beauvais. Johnson Production Group produces in association with Motion Content Group.

Beauvais is best known for her starring roles in The Jamie Foxx Show and NYPD Blue, as well as her movie roles in Coming 2 America, White House Down, and Spider-Man: Homecoming. In 2020, she joined the cast of the reality series The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and also co-hosted the daytime talk show The Real for its final two seasons.

Lifetime will also debut a companion to the movie, Beyond the Headlines: Black Girl Missing, which traces true stories of Black and missing women, featuring interviews with their families and members of the Black and Missing Foundation.

Black Girl Missing, Premieres, Saturday, March 4, 8 pm et, Lifetime