''Love Is'' (stylized as ''Love Is ___'') is an American drama television series created and produced by

Mara Brock Akil Mara Brock Akil (born Mara Dionne Brock; May 27, 1970) is an American screenwriter and television producer. She created the UPN comedy series '' Girlfriends'' (2000–2008) and its spin-off '' The Game'' (2006–2015). She later created the firs ...

and

Salim Akil Salim Akil is an American film and television producer, director, and screenwriter from Oakland, California. He developed the television series ''Black Lightning'' based on a DC comics character of the same name. He is a co-founder of Akil Prod ...

. Based on the Akils’ real-life relationship, the series follows a modern-day power couple in Black Hollywood balancing successful careers and family over three decades. The series premiered on June 19, 2018, on the Oprah Winfrey Network. On July 31, 2018, it was originally renewed for a second season, but on December 19, 2018, OWN reversed the decision and canceled the series after a woman accused Salim Akil of domestic violence in their extramarital affair, as well as copyright infringement by using her screenplay as the basis for the series.

Plot

In 2017, a Black power couple tell the story of how they found love in one another and of their rise to fame in Hollywood starting in the 1990s. When they meet, Nuri is a comedy

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

staff writer who longs to work in drama and Yasir is an aspiring but out of work writer/director.

Cast and characters

Main

Michele Weaver Michele Weaver is an American actress, known for playing the leading role in the Oprah Winfrey Network romantic drama series, '' Love Is''. Life and career Weaver was born and raised in Littleton, Colorado. She is the daughter of a Haitian moth ...

as Nuri Summers in the year 1997 * Will Catlett as Yasir Omar in the year 1997 * Wendy Davis as Nuri in the year 2017 *

Clarke Peters Peter Clarke (born April 7, 1952), known professionally as Clarke Peters, is an American-British actor, writer, and director. He is best known for his roles as Lester Freamon in the television series ''The Wire'' (2002–2008) and Albert Lambrea ...

as Yasir in the year 2017 * Idara Victor as Angela in the year 1997 * Tyrone Brown as Sean in the year 1997 * Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing as Ruby in the year 1997 *

Kadeem Hardison Kadeem Hardison (born July 24, 1965) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Dwayne Wayne on ''A Different World'', a spin-off of the long-running NBC sitcom ''The Cosby Show''. He starred in the Disney Channel series ''K.C. Under ...

as Norman in the year 1997

Recurring

Tammy Townsend Tamara A. Townsend (born August 17, 1970) is an American actress and singer. Townsend is best known for her roles as Wendy Reardon on the NBC daytime soap opera ''Days of Our Lives'' (1994–96), and Greta McClure, Eddie's girlfriend on the AB ...

as Carol, the mother of Nuri *

Loretta Devine Loretta Devine (born August 21, 1949) is an American actress, singer and voice actor. She is known for numerous roles across stage and screen. Her most high profile roles include Lorrell Robinson in the original Broadway production of '' Dreamg ...

as Betty, the mother of Yasir *

Tim Reid Timothy Lee Reid (born December 19, 1944) is an American actor, comedian and film director best known for his roles in prime time American television programs, such as Venus Flytrap on ''WKRP in Cincinnati'' (1978–82), Marcel "Downtown" Brown ...

as Sean in 2017. *

Vanessa Bell Calloway Vanessa Bell Calloway ( Bell; born March 20, 1957) is an American actress. Beginning her career as a dancer, Bell Calloway became known for her film roles as Princess Imani Izzi in the 1988 comedy ''Coming to America'', as well as for her roles ...

as Angela in 2017 * Tosin Morohunfola as Keith * Michael King as Will * Jef Holbrook as the Bookstore Manager *Robert Crayton as Big Bob

Episodes

Production

Development

The series originated under the title ''Documenting Love'', a multi-camera comedy project at

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

with a pilot production commitment in August, 2016. The project, which did not go to production at ABC network, later was rewritten as a one-hour single-camera dramedy. On July 18, 2017, it was announced that the project, now titled ''Love Is'', was ordered direct-to-series on Oprah Winfrey Network for airing in 2018.

Casting

On December 6, 2017, it was announced that newcomers

and Will Catlett would star as Nuri, a sitcom staff writer, and Yasir, a writer-director. On January 16, 2018, Idara Victor, Tyrone Brown,

, Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing, and Lana Young have been cast as series regulars. On February 15, 2018

joined the cast as regular. On February 16, 2018, it was announced that

and

have been tapped for recurring roles on the series. On April 13, 2018, it was announced that Wendy Davis would replace Lana Young as Nuri in the year 2017.

Reception

Critical response

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series has an approval rating of 80% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 66 out of 100 based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Ratings

References

External links

* {{Mara Brock Akil 2018 American television series debuts 2018 American television series endings 2010s American comedy-drama television series English-language television shows Oprah Winfrey Network original programming Television shows filmed in Atlanta