‘Ray & Nephew’: an upcoming comedy series with a shot of Caribbean flavor

BY: DELLIA RISMAY

On the surface, ‘Ray & Nephew’ is a story about a young man and his uncle, both of whom are trying to navigate their way through their professional and personal lives. At its core, the comedy aims to fill a void that currently exists in primetime TV: a TV show about a regular group of people that also happen to be Caribbean.

Keith Hill Jr., the show’s creator and one of its stars, describes the show as “’Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ meets ‘Black-ish’, but from a West Indian perspective”. The show follows an older Jamaican man, Raymond Powell (Naggo Morris), his wife, Blossom (Marcia Brown) and their nephew, Junior (Keith Hill Jr.), as they adjust to their new life in Toronto after moving from Flatbush, Brooklyn. Throw in the shift in dynamics that Raymond and Blossom are trying to navigate due to their professional basketball-playing son, and you have the perfect recipe for all kinds of crazy antics to ensure.

When he was writing the script for ‘Ray & Nephew’, Keith focused on creating content that would resonate with people in the West Indian and African community, but he didn’t want to create just any type of TV show. “I wanted to create something that was of a non-traditional matter. It’s not a stereotypical kind of story, but it’s a story that’s universal and can be related to by all ethnicities, but it just happens to be a West Indian background,” he explains. “I just thought there was a void in that kind of area.”

The show is also inspired by people and events in Keith’s life. After spending some time in Flatbush’s West Indian community, Keith, his sister, and his friends would recount the funny things they saw and experienced. Keith went on to write a movie script based on those experiences, and the upcoming TV show ‘Ray & Nephew’ is a spin-off of that movie script.

One stark difference between the movie script and the TV show? The title. Those that are familiar with alcohol from the Caribbean are sure to notice the play on words inspired by the popular overproof Jamaican rum, Wray and Nephew. “When I was trying to think about the TV show and what it was about, I just thought of making it about two characters: Uncle Ray, and his nephew, Junior. It was just a lightbulb moment. I immediately associated the connotation of the brand of alcohol and I thought it was ultimately just genius. People would understand that it’s West Indian just by the title alone,” Keith says.

When it came time to begin casting actors for the show, one of the first people Keith approached was Marcia Brown, who is well-known in the Caribbean-Canadian arts community. He credits her eagerness to get involved with the project in facilitating the rest of the show’s cast to come on board. “I felt confident that once I had her, I could go after the other pieces of the story,” says Keith.

Marcia was already familiar with the general idea around ‘Ray & Nephew’, as she had interacted with Keith while he was working on his movie script. So, when he contacted Marcia to ask if she’d be interested in being on the show, she said yes. “Another thing [that attracted me] was just the humor,” she says. “Naggo Morris happens to play my husband in a lot of my stage plays that I’ve done, and we’ve played some similar characters on stage. I am always the level-headed one, and he’s always the goofy one, and I could see how we could really have fun with these two characters.”

Keith describes ‘Ray & Nephew’ as a fun, family-oriented show that everyone will enjoy. “It’s definitely not the stereotypical West Indian storyline where there’s bod mon, weed smoking, dreadlocks…you won’t find any of that stereotypical stuff in there. It’s just a regular North American story about a regular North American family that goes through their struggles, but at the end of the day, they just so happen to be West Indian,” says Keith. “There is a very specific undertone message that is told by the storyline that’s also deliberate. We’re making people laugh, we’re entertaining them, but the goal is also to inspire and enlighten.”

‘Ray & Nephew’ will be available to stream for free on Youtube in the next few months. For more information, go to https://www.facebook.com/RayAndNephewTV/.