Brandee Evans Talks P-VALLEY, Taking on the Role of “Mercedes,” and the Female Lens

Blackfilm.com correspondent Ellen Wanjiru chats with Brandee Evans who headlines Starz’s new acclaimed drama P-VALLEY.

Down deep in the Mississippi Delta lies an oasis of grit and glitter in a rough patch of human existence where beauty can be hard to find. This Southern-fried, hour-long drama tells the kaleidoscopic story of a “little strip club that could” and the big characters who come through its doors — the hopeful, the lost, the broken, the ballers, the beautiful and the damned. Trap music meets film noir in this lyrical and atmospheric series that dares to ask what happens when small-town folk dream beyond the boundaries of the Piggly Wiggly and the pawnshop.

Katori Hall, an Olivier Award-winning playwright from Memphis, Tennessee, is the creator, showrunner and Executive Producer of P-VALLEY, based on her play Pussy Valley.

Series regulars include Brandee Evans “Mercedes,” Nathaniel Nicco-Annan “Uncle Clifford,” Shannon Thornton “Miss Mississsippi,” Elarica Johnson “Autumn Night,” Skyler Joy “Gidget,” J. Alphonse Nicholson “Lil Murda,” Parker Sawyer “Andre Watkins,” Harriett D. Foy “Pastor Woodbine,” Dan Johnson “Corbin Kyle,” and Tyler Lepley “Diamond.”

BRANDEE EVANS is a Memphis native and a former high-school English teacher who wrote her resignation letter to the school board while on vacation in Los Angeles. Determined to live her dream, she has graced the stage all over the world as a professional dancer and choreographer. In 2010, Evans created a series of dance classes for women focusing on improving confidence, building strength, finding “sexy” and having fun. She encouraged dancers of all experience and ability levels to take the class in a fierce pair of pumps. Her classes grew quickly in popularity, and she has gone on to teach sessions in Los Angeles, Memphis, Georgia, Vegas, Japan and the U.K. She was featured in the Oprah Winfrey Network television special “Dance Crash,” which focuses on bringing together a group of girls through tough love and sisterhood. She also received the 2015 and 2017 Sunshine Beyond Summer Sunshine Award, presented by Robi Reed and the Reed for Hope Foundation. With all of her dance success, Evans decided to branch out into acting, and she soon realized she had found her true passion. She booked her first feature film role on Trey Haley’s Note to Self, and she has since gone on to appear in supporting roles on “The New Edition Story,” Lethal Weapon and, most recently, as Tina Brown in BET’s “The Bobby Brown Story.” She also had a guest-starring role in “Games People Play.”