Veteran actress Lorraine Toussaint has joined the cast of Netflix‘s comedic prison drama, “Orange Is The New Black.” In an effort to beef up casting for the upcoming second season, the website has promoted Danielle Brooks to a season 2 regular. She starred in a recurring role as Taystee in the first season of this series.
Toussaint will play Vee, described as a longtime street thug who ran her own drug business and recruited children to serve as runners. She also recurs on ABC Family’s “The Fosters” and starred in Ava Duvernay’s “Middle Of Nowhere.”
Created by Jenji Kohan (Weeds), the dramedy stars Taylor Schilling and is set in a women’s prison. As with Netflix’s other original series, all thirteen one-hour episodes of “Orange Is The New Black” were made available with the first season’s premiere.
Besides Lorraine Toussaint and Danielle Brooks, the series has recruited a number of actresses of African descent, including Samira Wiley, Vicky Jeudy, Lolita Foster, Michelle Hurst, Uzo Aduba, Adrienne C. Moore, Laverne Cox, and Dascha Polanco.
Here’s a brief synopsis:
Orange Is the New Black follows engaged Brooklynite Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), whose decade-old relationship with drug-runner Alex (Laura Prepon) results in her arrest and year-long detention in a federal penitentiary. To pay her debt to society, Piper must trade her comfortable New York life with fiance Larry (Jason Biggs) for an orange prison jumpsuit and a baffling prison culture where she is forced to question everything she believes and form unexpected new alliances with a group of eccentric and outspoken inmates.
