Ava DuVernay & Oprah’s ‘Queen Sugar’ Names Shaz Bennett As Final Season Showrunner

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Queen Sugar has a new boss to take the Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey executive produced drama to its conclusion later this yearShaz Bennett will serve as showrunner for the OWN series in its seventh and final season.

Set to start production this month down in Louisiana the Dawn-Lyen Gardner, Kofi Siriboe and Rutina Wesley starring Queen Sugar is expected to premiere its last cycle this fall.“Shaz is a multi-hyphenate who has been a dream to collaborate with because she is kind, open, dedicated and about the work with no ego and all heart,” DuVernay told Deadline today of co-EP, writer and long-time director Bennett.“From her episodic directing of Queen Sugar to being a true leader as our co-executive producer last season, I’ve reveled in watching her shine, the Oscar nominee noted. “When considering who we wanted to end the series with by our side, Paul and I chose Shaz hands-down and I’m just overjoyed to work with her in this capacity.”Replacing Anthony Sparks in the showrunner perch, Bennett will also be an EP on Queen Sugar with DuVernay, Winfrey and Array Filmworks president Paul Garnes.Fulfilling multiple roles on Season 6 of the show, including helming the penultimate episode and the November 16 2021 “And You Would Be One of Them” finale, Bennett actually had her small screen directorial debut in Season 30 of Queen Sugar.

With writing gigs on Bosch, and Dance Moms, Bennett has gone on to direct on Showtime’s Billions and NBC’s Ordinary Joe, among othersBennett’s 2017 feature debut Alaska Is A Drag was picked up by Array and released on Netflix globally in 2019.

Starring Martin L. Washington Jr, Maya Washington, Matt Dallas, Christopher O’Shea, Jason Scott Lee, Margaret Cho, Kevin Daniels, Nia Peeples