Black-ish creator Kenya Barris is having a few family issues that have come to a head. According to TMZ, Barris has filed a restraining order against his sister Colette Barris and claims that she’s threatened his wife and children.
TMZ further claims that the brother and sister have had a strained relationship for years. According to court documents obtained by the media outlet, Colette is a writer as well and a teacher. She’s also tried to unsuccessfully get a few of her own projects off the ground by using her last name and brother’s reputation to secure interviews with Hollywood executives. Due to the failed attempts, Kenya fears that he and his family’s lives may be in danger.
The documents also revealed that she sent her brother a letter demanding he fund a project of hers in the amount of $4-milion or she would go public with their tensions. Despite the family drama, the show must go on and Kenya Barris already has his hands full for 2021. The #BlackAF star has also signed on to write and direct the upcoming biopic on the late comedian Richard Pryor.
Speaking of his upcoming project, Barris told The Hollywood Reporter, “The way Pryor did what he did — with truth and specificity that was somehow self-aware and self-deprecating, and said with an unmatched level of vulnerability — that was the power and impact of his work. Pryor had a voice that was distinctly his and, in many ways, comedy since then has been derivative of what he created. To me, this is a film about that voice, the journey that shaped it, and what it took for it to come to be.”
Comedian Mike Epps has been in talks for years to land the leading role, although an official cast has yet to be named.
