‘Y&R’ Recasts Tatyana Ali’s Roxanne With Tetona Jackson, Adds Fareed Ward as New Doctor

TV Insider can exclusively reveal the first casting news from The Young and the Restless‘ new co-head writers, Jamey Giddens and Dan O’Connor, whose material begins airing November 11.

A new doctor will join the Genoa City canvas, along with a returning character who will be played by a different actor.

Fareed Ward will portray Dr. Andrew Bishop, a colleague of Nate Hastings (Sean Dominic) and Stephanie Simmons (Vivica A. Fox). Stephanie serves as chief of staff at Genoa City Memorial Hospital, and Nate recently returned to medicine after undergoing surgery to repair an injury he sustained in October 2020 during a fight with Devon Winters (Bryton James).

Ward earned his first television credit in 2002 on Will & Grace and has since appeared in several primetime series, including CBS’s CIA, FBI and S.W.A.T. and the Netflix series, Graveyard. He also appeared on All My Children in February 2010 playing a character named Larry

Devon’s ex-girlfriend, Roxanne Barrington, is returning to Genoa City, now played by Tetona Jackson. Introduced in 2007, Roxanne was originally portrayed by Tatyana Ali, who is currently competing on Dancing with the Stars. Roxanne and Devon were an on-again, off-again couple until she left town in 2013. During her time on the soap, Ali won three consecutive NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series.

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Jackson, a newcomer to daytime, has held series regular roles on the CBS comedy Poppa’s House and BET’s Boomerang, as well as a recurring role on Freeform’s Good Trouble.

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On July 29, TV Insider was the first to report that Giddens and O’Connor had been hired to replace Josh Griffith, who stepped down as head writer in June after previously relinquishing his executive producer role on the 53-year-old soap.

Giddens is nominated for two Outstanding Writing Team for a Daytime Drama series awards at the 53^rd Daytime Emmy Awards on Friday, October 30, for his work on Days of our Lives and Beyond the Gates. He also co-created the primetime drama Ambitions with Will Packer that aired on OWN in 2019. On social media, Giddens has been giving Y&R fans a glimpse of what’s ahead, sharing photos from the show’s upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas episodes.

O’Connor began his daytime career as a writers’ associate on One Life to Live. After the show was canceled, he joined General Hospital in 2013, going on to serve as associate head writer, breakdown writer, and co-head writer. Most recently, he wrote for Days of our Lives.

Ward and Jackson will make their Y&R debuts in November.

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