A Podcast Conversation With ... Loren Lott (The Porter)
Learn more about fascinating new CBC series The Porter via this interview with one of its American stars.
By Bill King
An all black and Canadian undertaking is about to premiere in eight episodes, making Black History Month in Canada another reason to champion our own. In this week’s podcast I speak with San Diego native actress and cast member Loren Lott, who plays Lucy in this new series, The Porter.
After pursuing her dreams in California for several years, Loren moved to Atlanta where she received a BA in Mass Media Arts with a concentration in radio/TV/film from Clark Atlanta University. Loren continued acting while in Atlanta appearing live in Shrek the Musical at the Alliance Theatre and on several television shows including Greenleaf, The Game, Tales, Fatal Attraction, Powers, a feature film called Tag, and several independent projects.
While in Atlanta Loren also got cast for season 14 of American Idol where she made it to Top 16! After American Idol Loren started her higher theatre career, landing the role of Gladys Knight in Motown the Musical understudying Diana Ross, in the National tour as well as the Broadway company in New York. After taking a year off Broadway, Loren returned when she booked the job of a swing in Once On This Island.
Loren then appeared live as CeCe Winans in Born For This the Musical in Boston making her leading lady debut before returning to Once on this Island two months later, where she got bumped up temporarily to star in Once On This Island as Timoune. (Lott Bio)
Inspired by real events and set in the roar of the 1920s, The Porter (8x60) follows the journeys of an ensemble of characters who hustle, dream, cross borders and pursue their ambitions in the fight for liberation - on and off the railways that crossed North America. It is a gripping story of empowerment and idealism that highlights the moment when railway workers from both Canada and the United States joined together to give birth to the world’s first Black union.
Set primarily in Montreal, Chicago and Detroit as the world rebuilds after the First World War, The Porter depicts the Black community in St. Antoine, Montreal - known, at the time as the “Harlem of the North.” They’re young, gifted and Black, from Canada, the Caribbean, and the U.S. via the Underground Railroad and through the Great Migration, and they find themselves thrown together north and south of the colour line, in an era that boasts anything is possible - but if change isn’t coming for them, they will come for it. By any means necessary.
A CBC and BET+ original series produced by Winnipeg-based Inferno Pictures and Sienna Films (a Sphere Media company), The Porter is originated and created by Arnold Pinnock (Altered Carbon, Travelers) and Bruce Ramsay (19-2, Cardinal), with Annmarie Morais (Killjoys, Ransom, American Soul), Marsha Greene (Ten Days In The Valley, Mary Kills People) and Aubrey Nealon (Snowpiercer, Cardinal), and produced by Winnipeg-based Inferno Pictures Inc. and Sphere Media’s Sienna Films.
Morais and Greene are showrunners and executive producers. Charles Officer (Akilla’s Escape, Coroner) and R.T. Thorne (Blindspot, Utopia Falls) will direct the series, and are executive producers. Pinnock also serves as an executive producer, and Ramsay a co-executive producer. Jennifer Kawaja serves as Executive Producer for Sienna Films and Ian Dimerman as Executive Producer for Inferno Pictures. The series is written by Morais, Greene, Andrew Burrows-Trotman, Priscilla White, Pinnock and Ramsay, with Thorne participating in the writers’ room. Info courtesy CBC.
