Cast Announced for ABC’s When We Rise

BURBANK: ABC Studios has announced three of the leads for When We Rise, the limited event series from Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black: Guy Pearce, Rachel Griffiths and Mary-Louise Parker.

The drama will focus on the personal and political struggles of LGBT men and women who pioneered the gay rights movement. Pearce has been cast as LGBT activist Cleve Jones, Parker will star as women’s rights leader Roma Guy and Griffiths will play her wife Diane, a social-justice activist. The roles of African-American community organizer Ken Jones and transgender activist Cecelia Chung are still to be cast, among others.

Lance Black won an Oscar in 2008 for the feature film Milk. He also wrote the screenplay for J. Edgar and worked on HBO’s Big Love. He is exec-producing the miniseries alongside Laurence Mark, Bruce Cohen and Gus Van Sant for ABC. Van Sant will direct the two-hour premiere of the seven-episode event limited series.

“It’s been the honor of my life to research and craft these stories of family, diversity and equality over the past three years,” said Lance Black. “To have collaborators of this caliber sign on to help bring these stories to life is a tremendous vote of confidence, and I hope a testament to the relevancy and necessity of our continued march toward justice for all.”