EXCLUSIVE: Amazon is developing Whiskey Matriarch, a new drama series starring and executive produced by Academy Award nominee Taraji P. Henson, sources tell Deadline.
Reps for Amazon declined comment; plot details are being kept under wraps. The series sold to Amazon competitively after being set up at Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.
Hailing from Blackmaled, TPH Entertainment and Third Road Production, the show is created by Alesia Dangerfield, an-up-and-coming L.A.-based writer from Maryland, who will also serve as writer and executive producer. Sisters Attica and Tembi Locke will also write and exec produce. Malcolm D. Lee directs and exec produces alongside Dominique Telson via Blackmaled, along with Henson and Jamila Jordan via TPH.
Most recently seen starring in Netflix’s Why Did I Get Married Again?, which marked a reteam with longtime collaborator Tyler Perry, Henson earlier this year made her Broadway debut in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone opposite Cedric the Entertainer. Next up, she’ll be seen in Netflix’s Give Me Some Sugah, directed by Tasha Smith. Her TPH banner has a first-look TV deal with Fox Entertainment Studios and signed a two-picture film deal with Netflix last October. Most recently, the company took its doc Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been, directed by Barry Avrich, to TIFF, where it won the 2026 People’s Choice Documentary Award. Henson is repped by IAG, 1v1 Entertainment and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols.
Best known for her work on the writing staff for Paramount+’s reboot of The Game, Dangerfield is repped by TFC Management and CAA.
Attica and Tembi Locke are known for co-creating and exec producing Netflix’s romantic drama From Scratch, inspired by a memoir by Tembi, which starred Zoe Saldaña. Both New York Times bestselling authors, the pair are currently co-showrunners, writers and EPs on Peacock’s series adaptation of Before I Let Go from romance author Kennedy Ryan. Previously, Attica worked alongside Henson as part of the writing and producing teams for her Fox music-world drama Empire. The Lockes are jointly repped by UTA and 3 Arts Entertainment. Attica is also repped by Myman Greenspan; Tembi by Yorn Levine.
Best known as the director of The Best Man films, as well as comedies like Girls Trip and Night School, Lee is an exec producer on the Lockes’ Before I Let Go. He is repped by IAG, Bazan Entertainment and Del Shaw Moonves.
