Veteran Atlanta actor Terri J. Vaughn is a fan of “Veep” and had an idea to create a TV series around a Black female politician facing political headwinds in the face of sexism and racism.
But she needed a big name to help her shepherd her idea.
Vaughn had met Keisha Lance Bottoms, who stepped down after one term as Atlanta mayor in 2022, a few times over the years, well enough to have her number. “I had to pump myself up to call her to ask her for a meeting,” Vaughn said during an interview in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newsroom in Midtown. “Fortunately, when I pitched the show to her, she loved it.” Bottoms joined the team as an executive producer.
Bottoms’ presence helped Vaughn get funders to pay for a “proof of concept” mini-pilot. They then pitched the show idea to several production companies and got multiple bites. The best deal? Tyler Perry and Netflix, the world’s largest streaming service.
The result is “Tyler Perry’s She the People,” his first series comedy for Netflix. The show debuts May 22 with eight episodes, and another eight coming out in August.
Vaughn ― who moved to Atlanta in 2008 and resides in Lawrenceville with her husband, fellow actor Karon Riley ― has been acting for more than three decades. She’s best known for her breakout role on the WB sitcom “The Steve Harvey Show” from 1997 to 2002 as high school secretary Lovita Alizay Jenkins Robinson.
She then became a regular on UPN’s “All of Us” and Perry’s TBS show “Meet the Browns.” In more recent years, she’s had recurring roles on OWN’s “Greenleaf,” Bounce TV’s “Johnson” and BET+’s “First Wives Club.”
But “She the People” is her first leading role in a series. “I’ve worked really hard to get here,” she said. “I’m living my dream.”
Vaughn plays Antoinette Dunkerson, who becomes the first Black female lieutenant governor of Mississippi. But Gov. Irwin Harper (Robert Craighead) doesn’t actually want to give her any real responsibilities. And she has to grapple with her own complicated family dynamics including an ex-husband and two annoyed teenagers.
“She’s trying to create this perfect life, which is impossible,” Vaughn said. “She’s driving herself crazy. At the same time, she’s totally ambitious. She absolutely wants to be governor eventually.”
She surrounds herself with family and friends while fending off intrusions and slights from the governor who sees her more as a figurehead than a true partner. Much of the humor, she said, stems from this tension.
“Even the guys who play the protagonists, the governor and his staff, they’re creeps on the show but the most beautiful human beings off camera,” Vaughn said. “They allowed us to poke fun at them.”
Credit: Charles “Chip” Bergmann/Netflix
Credit: Charles “Chip” Bergmann/Netflix
Vaughn, a San Francisco native, was initially inspired by London Breed, who served as the first Black female mayor of her hometown from 2018 to early this year. But after Bottoms became Atlanta mayor, Vaughn and her business partner Niya Palmer decided to move the show setting to Atlanta.
Only after Perry bought the idea did the show move fictionally to Mississippi. (Perry, who shot the show largely at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, writes and directs the first eight episodes.)
“He wanted to really dive into the dynamics of a very challenging position for a Black woman to be in” that was in some ways tougher than being the mayor in Atlanta, Vaughn said.
Still, Perry did take ideas from Bottoms’ personal experiences and incorporated them into the scripts.
Credit: Getty Images for Netflix
Credit: Getty Images for Netflix
Bottoms, in an interview with the AJC, said she created a goals list in 2009 that included eventually developing a TV show. So when Vaughn called to meet her for breakfast in 2023, she was excited by the pitch.
“We met at the Four Seasons (in Midtown Atlanta) for breakfast and talked so long, it was lunchtime before we left,” she said. “Terri had me at hello.”
Credit: Charles “Chip” Bergmann/Netflix
Credit: Charles “Chip” Bergmann/Netflix
Given the often weighty issues Bottoms had to grapple with while mayor of Atlanta, she said she wanted to show how funny and colorful the world of politics can be behind the scenes.
“A lot of people now are a little discouraged about politics, so the timing of this is perfect,” said Bottoms, who recently announced plans to run for Georgia governor. “You’ll see how everyday folks make up our democracy, folks from all walks of life. And it was such an incredible opportunity to work with Tyler Perry. To watch him work up close has been quite the experience.”
Bottoms, who provided both business and creative guidance on and off set, said being a Hollywood outsider worked to her advantage.
“Often, ignorance is bliss,” she said. “I didn’t have a concept of how things are supposed to work, what’s customary. It gave me the freedom to be creative as someone who believes in the project and worked to make it a reality.”
If You Watch
“Tyler Perry’s She the People,” debuting May 22 on Netflix
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