Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Her Side
Her Side

Imani Hakim Lands Role as Gabrielle Douglas in Lifetime Biopic

Posted byBy Tracy | Published on: CommentsComments (1)

Gabby Douglas, the first black gymnast in Olympic history to become the Individual All-Around Champion and the first American gymnast to win gold in both the individual all-around and team competitions at the same Olympics, is getting a TV biopic. Lifetime has greenlighted The Gabby Douglas Story (working title), an original movie starring Imani Hakim (Everybody Hates Chris) and Sydney Mikayla as the two-time Olympic gold medalist; Southland alumna Regina King as her mother; and S. Epatha Merkerson (Law & Order) as her grandmother. Mikayla will portray Douglas during her childhood while Hakim will play her as a teenager and young adult. Douglas also will appear in the film produced by Sony Pictures TV.

The synopsis as reported by Deadline.com:

“A child prodigy, Douglas was doing one-armed cartwheels around the house at age 4, taught by her older sister Arielle. She began formal gymnastics training at 6 and two years later made a big entry into the world of competitive gymnastics. She won numerous state championship titles but eventually reached her peak at her local gym while her family faced economic challenges at home. A difficult decision was made for Gabby to leave her mother Natalie (King), three siblings and grandmother (Merkerson)  in Virginia Beach at age 14 and move to Des Moines, Iowa, to train with renowned coach Liang Chow (Brian Tee) to pursue her dream of Olympic glory.

“The move paid off, and Gabby at 16 made it onto the 2012 U.S. Women’s Gymnastics team — known as “The Fierce Five” — winning Team Competition and Individual All-round gold medals. She recently returned to the gym, training on her own in Los Angeles with the goal of competing at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“Zev Braun and Philip Krupp (Lifetime’s A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story) will serve as executive producers on The Gabby Douglas Story, with David Rosemont (Lifetime’s Bonnie & Clyde) producing. Gregg Champion (Lifetime’s Amish Grace) will direct from a script written by Maria Nation (Lifetime’s The Two Mr. Kissels). Merkerson is repped by ICM Partners and managed by Bob McGowan; King is with ICM and John Carrabino.”

 

Still independent.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Related Stories

Back to top