Sterling K. Brown Stars in Aleshea Harris' 'Is God Is'
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- Sterling K. Brown plays the Monster in 'Is God Is,' the feature directorial debut of writer/director Aleshea Harris, and told Rolling Out he was drawn to the 'incredibly creative' script and the opportunity to subvert expectations of Black storytelling.
- 'Is God Is' is based on Harris' 2018 off-Broadway play, which won three Obie Awards and earned a Pulitzer nomination, and follows twin sisters Racine (Kara Young) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson) who are summoned by their disfigured mother—called God, played by Vivica A. Fox—to kill their father, the Monster, who set the fire that burned them as babies.
- Aleshea Harris wrote, adapted, and directed the original stage production, and Brown singled out the film for letting Black women be 'hella messy' rather than serving as 'voices of reason' in a larger story.
- The ensemble cast also includes Janelle Monáe, Erika Alexander, Mykelti Williamson, and Josiah Cross, with the film now playing in theaters.
- Brown, an Oscar nominee, framed the project as part of a broader push to diversify Black stories on screen, arguing that 'the more diverse the landscape of stories… the more people will stop putting us into a box in terms of what a Black movie is.'
Why it matters: Brown, an Oscar nominee, attaching himself to a Pulitzer-nominated playwright's debut feature signals a prestige-level push behind a genre thriller built around Black women as unfiltered, complex protagonists—expanding what 'a Black story' looks like on screen, per Brown's own framing.
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