All American entered the television scene nearly eight years ago as yet another trailblazing coming-of-age story on a network with a history and a 2018 fall slate full of them. It’ll end its eight-season run on Monday as the lone symbol of a bygone era at The CW.
Inspired by the life of former NFL linebacker Spencer Paysinger, the series debuted in October 2018 and began what would increasingly become an uphill battle to stay on the air.
Yet, as the television landscape (and the world) changed rapidly around it, All American always found a way. It stood its ground on issues from racial injustice to mental health awareness to substance abuse to exploitation in youth sports time and time again. When money was tight, the series faced slashed budgets and shrinking episodic orders that continually tested the cast and crew’s determination to keep it alive.
Not only did it stay alive, it ran for eight seasons and more than 100 episodes — a milestone that has long been celebrated on television and is becoming increasingly rare. It survived several major disruptions, including the COVID-19 pandemic, a historically long writers and actors strike, and an exodus of series regulars after Season 6. It’ll hang up its hat on Monday as the last of its kind on The CW, which has largely abandoned young adult television after the network made a name for itself over decades of evolution with the genre. And, despite the network’s storied history in the YA space, All American will stand as one of the few that put a primarily Black cast on broadcast television.
Through more than a dozen conversations with the cast and writers, Deadline has weaved together an oral history of the series from those nerve-wracking early days on Season 1 to the bittersweet end of production in December 2025.
On October 2, 2018, about a week before the premiere of The CW’s new high school football series All American, news broke that creator and showrunner April Blair would be replaced by co-executive producer Nkechi Okoro Carroll. Though she had been consulting on the series since the earlier days of the writers room, Okoro Carroll had not been involved with shaping the pilot or the original idea for the series, but she would now be responsible for preserving the ethos of this incredibly nascent show through the end of its first season and, with any hope, beyond.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: I’d been on an overall deal at 20th [Century Fox Television], and I’d just come over and signed an overall with Warner Bros. and was working on a pilot pitch to take out for them. They asked if I would read a script that was called, I think, Spencer at the time, and consider staffing temporarily on that show while I was working on my pitch to take out and just help out there. I’ve loved YA shows my whole life. I still do. I always will. I remember getting that sort of tingly feeling when I read the script and just being like, ‘Oh, this reminds me of how I used to feel watching the original Beverly Hills 90210 and all the other sort of YA shows I loved from way, way back in the day.’
So I agreed to take a meeting, but then Greg [Berlanti] asked me to sit down and watch the pilot, and you don’t say no to Greg Berlanti. And at the time I was like, ‘Oh, it’ll be cool to watch the pilot,’ but I wasn’t really thinking anything of it. After a while, I forgot I was watching it for consideration for coming on to the show, and I was just watching it as a fan. By the time the pilot ended, I was in tears, and I was just so emotionally invested in these characters, and it was special. I remember walking out of the conference room I was screening in and seeing Greg, and he just had this big smile on his face, because he knew that it was special. He knew the minute I saw it, I was going to be like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ From there, the rest was history. [The writers room was] full of a bunch of us who’d come up on these YA shows, who had a genuine love and respect for the genre, and really could see the potential in these characters and where we could take these stories. It’s crazy to think that was eight years ago.
The pilot episode of All American introduces viewers to 16-year-old Spencer James (Daniel Ezra), a star quarterback at South Crenshaw High School who gets recruited by the head coach of Beverly High, Billy Baker (Taye Diggs), to instead play ball in one of the wealthiest locales in Los Angeles. It was Ezra’s first big television gig, as it was for many of the young actors who made up the original teenage cast.
Thinking back, Season 1 was full of contradicting emotions. Fear, excitement, a nervous sense of optimism about the show they were making.
DANIEL EZRA: All I remember about the pilot was being terrified someone was going to change their mind and send me home.
MONET MAZUR: There was something about the script that just grabbed you from the moment you read it, and I just thought, ‘Wow, this is not a story I would usually see myself in, or a part I necessarily had been cast playing before,’ but in those 60 pages, I knew immediately that I wanted to do it. You don’t have that feeling a lot.
TAYE DIGGS: A lot of the issues that the show was dealing with when it came to African Americans and fathers and sons, all that I was literally going through in real life relationships. I love the relationships and how the character — I don’t want to say [Billy] was flawed, but he’s very human.
KARIMAH WESTBROOK: It was one of my biggest dreams to become a series regular on a hit drama series. I had been living in Los Angeles for about 18 years, and it was a busy season of auditioning for new potential shows. I hadn’t booked anything yet, and when I read the script for All American, I absolutely loved it. The story felt real and relatable…What resonated with me about the script was the storyline of a talented kid with a dream being raised by a single mom, doing the best she could for her children, in a community that wasn’t always safe.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: Honestly, my goal for the first season was: Do not get us canceled. Season 1 shows are so tough, and especially with me coming over and stepping in as showrunner. Everyone worked their tail off on that first season and put their whole heart and soul into it, and we could all feel how special it was. I had put some unrealistic sort of weight on my shoulders of ‘do not fail them, do not fail them, do not fail them.’
MONET MAZUR: The expectation was so high, and we were all just so excited to be there without even knowing where the show would go, or how successful it would become. It did feel like that from the very beginning, that there was just something magical about it, and we had no idea how topical and timely everything would become.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: I was very, very grateful for my partner in crime, Jamie Turner. We came up in this business together. I knew, as sort of the football aficionado that he is, and how much he loved the genre as much as I did, that I needed to bring his special sauce to the mix toward the back half of Season 1.
JAMIE TURNER: At that point in my career, I had primarily worked on cop procedurals, so a lion’s share of the work that’s done in a procedural writers’ room is built around case beats, plot twists and propulsion. But in the family drama space, you get to slow down a little and focus on character, conflict and emotional journeys. It’s also a great environment for you to tap into your personal well and share stories about yourself that could add layers and depth to the characters you’re writing for.
NKECHI OKORO CARROL: So once we were able to get that done, it just suddenly felt like everything was cooking on all cylinders. Everyone always brought an extra something to the table that made it so special.
BRE-Z: I remember all of us just being all ears, eyes wide open just to dive into these characters and bring them to life as best as we could. The beginning days were just a lot of fun, a lot of laughing, a lot of talking, a lot of learning, and going back and forth about these characters and what we’d do if we were them, and also reminiscing on our own high school experiences.
CHELSEA TAVARES: I was Bre-Z’s first on-screen kiss. I remember she was really nervous, so I took her to the side so she could peck my lips without the cameras, and after that we just started cracking jokes on each other. It’s weird, but she was like a big sister to me. Our chemistry was very natural and effortless from day one.
MICHAEL EVANS BEHLING: Me, Daniel [Ezra] and Greta [Onieogou] were all brand new to California itself, so that was really scary and lovely. But we all had each other. It was amazing to lean on those individuals and have fun going to work.
DANIEL EZRA: Mike and I essentially hid in his apartment for two years.
MICHAEL EVANS BEHLING: We’ve talked about this before — we didn’t leave my apartment for all of Season 1. We were so petrified of Los Angeles to the point where we’d have a full week of work, and then on Saturday morning he’d come over around 11 in the morning, and we’d watch cartoons all day long. We would do that for Saturday and Sunday, and just order food, and it was fantastic. We got to bond and chat. I can remember bonding with Greta really well, just because she didn’t have a car, and so she would [go back and forth] getting rides from me and Daniel, because we all lived in North Hollywood at the time, which was really awesome.
GRETA ONIEOGOU: We all got close very quickly, I think. For most of us, it was our first really, really big job, and so we were sort of catapulted into this. When the show got super popular, especially over COVID, we were sort of catapulted together, so it made us all really close having this really unique experience all together. Long hours on set, spending a lot of time laughing, and it was a lot of fun.
CHELSEA TAVARES: Mike threw really fun parties! I think by the second season, when we would all go out together. That’s when the fans started noticing everybody, especially girls would scream when they saw Daniel, Mike, and Cody [Christian].
While the show had a fairly small broadcast audience in that first season, it completely took off on Netflix. By the time that the show returned for Season 2, it was already benefitting from a boost in popularity. Then, just as it seemed All American was hitting a stride, COVID almost killed the show, but in a weird way, ended up being its biggest blessing.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: We started shooting Season 2, and Season 1 had done okay on the network, and then when it re-aired on Netflix, it picked up an even bigger audience. That was when we were really starting to feel the rumblings of, ‘Oh, people are talking about us.’ We were no longer sort of ‘The Little Show That Could.’ We found out about our Season 3 pickup fairly early, while we were shooting Season 2, so that felt great to know, like, ‘Oh, we’re not on the bubble anymore. We don’t have to wait to see what happens.’ Then COVID hit while we had just started writing scripts for Season 3. Production was down, and all of a sudden everyone was stuck at home, and word of mouth started spreading about this show, All American.
JAMIE TURNER: From the first day I landed in the writers’ room to our last day filming Season 1, I always felt like there was something special about this show from the writers’ room to our cast to our incredible crew. We were instant family, which is rare. I even told my reps between Season 1 and 2 to hold off on any potential staffing meetings for other shows until we learn if we’ll be picked up for Season 2. I was clearly betting on the show, but I was also betting on the culture, cause I had a feeling this show would blow up the moment it landed on Netflix. Next thing you know, the rapper Wale, Coach Deion Sanders and a host of celebrities started shouting us out on social media and the show hit another gear in terms of popularity and man did it soar.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: I was constantly on the phone with the studio and the network, all of us trying to figure out if there is a safe way to bring the show back during COVID, and how we would shoot football and everything. I almost didn’t even realize what was happening in the zeitgeist until I sort of looked up and it was everywhere.
DANIEL EZRA: I don’t think there was much belief in us, in NK or the show for a long time. Everything was a fight. It always feels good proving people wrong.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: Quite frankly, it was that continued passion and love from our audience that kept us on the air. It was always the thing I could go back to as I was pitching the new season to the studio and network as part of our pickup process, what this show meant to the fans and the communities, and what would feel absent from television if it wasn’t on the air. The response from our audience gave me the material I needed during those pitches to be like, ‘Hey, grandparents down to their grandkids are arguing about watching the show together. We pulled off a generational show that is really appealing across the board to all ages,’ and it really allowed us to go the distance.
The show resonated for many of the same reasons coming-of-age stories have always endured: it took seriously the lives and struggles of people of all ages, even kids, who felt like they had the weight of the world on their shoulders. It lent empathy to hard conversations about race and class and identity, refusing to minimize the reality of being a teenager as the country entered yet another era of reckoning about its sociopolitical structures.
Whatever the world was talking about, the show would be talking about, too. Even if the world didn’t seem ready for the conversation yet, All American was going to have it.
TAYE DIGGS: I was proud of the bravery to handle and talk about certain issues — racism, and being a young Black man, with how young Black men have to deal with police, being a part of an interracial relationship, all of this was real issues that we weren’t afraid to deal with. I was very, very proud that we chose to face these issues head on.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: Even as early on as when we did the cop stop in Episode 103, which was one of the first scripts I wrote for the series, I remember we were having long debates in the writers’ room about [how] the only way it made sense for us to bring it to the screen was if we were going to have an honest conversation about what it looks like when these boys come home from that. If we were going to have an honest conversation about the first time I had to have a conversation with my son about being stopped by the cops and how to carry yourself and knowing you were giving up a piece of their childhood the minute you had to have that conversation.
KAREEM J. GRIMES: We don’t see a lot of roles of African American men fighting and getting custody of their child. Billy Baker giving [Preach] a second chance at life to right his wrongs and become a teacher…that’s real life. Everybody’s an ex-something, and everybody deserves a second chance, sometimes [a] third chance. This show displayed that from Season 1 all the way to 8, and I’m just grateful to be a part of a show like this.
KARIMAH WESTBROOK: The most fulfilling part for me in telling the adult stories was the message of taking accountability and the power of forgiveness. I love how the adults were able to overcome the things that happened in the past and come together, eventually building a stronger connection. I also love how we fought for the best for our kids.
MICHAEL EVANS BEHLING: [One of] the hardest scenes was Olivia’s overdose scene. It hit home for me and my family, and so to tap into that was probably the hardest [scene] I’ve ever [shot] in all of my career.
JAMIE TURNER: One [scene] that has stayed with me the whole series happened during Episode 205 when Layla threw a birthday party for Liv and Jordan that spiraled out of control. Towards the end of the episode, there’s a moment between Layla and her dad, JT, where he tells her for the first time that her mother suffered from depression. The way Layla processed that information and lived in the heartbreak was so beautifully nuanced by Greta Onieogou and perfectly captured by the director of that episode, David McWhirter.
GRETA ONIEOGOU: I think that the mental health episodes, especially when it was particularly bad, were always tough. A lot of times you have to go to some pretty challenging places, but I think what we’re able to portray in those episodes make a lot of people feel seen and heard in a way they might not have [seen] beforehand on television. I think it’s worth it.
There was a brief moment, around the start of the third season, when All American seemed to finally have the wind in its sales. Not only was the flagship series doing well, the franchise was growing. It became popular enough to spawn a three-season spinoff series set at an HBCU in Atlanta, All American: Homecoming. Eventually, after a short period of smooth sailing, the show faced the harsh reality that is bound to confront any long-running series eventually: cast exits.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: I mean, that was just always a reality as a show gets longer and longer. I always thought it was a miracle every season that we were able to hold on to someone like Taye. It was leading into Season 5 where Taye and I started talking about it, just because I knew he had another project coming out that I was a huge fan of, and so was happy to facilitate him sort of [shooting] both, because selfishly, as a fan, I wanted to watch him in the other series as well. But it also got me thinking, I was like, ‘Oh, I feel like we’re on borrowed time.’
Diggs was the first of the major cast members to depart. His exit came in Season 5, Episode 11, when Billy dies saving his team during a bus crash.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL When Taye and I had that conversation, I was like, ‘Look, I fully support you. I respect you, and if you feel like you want to do other things right now, I completely understand that. This is how it would have to be done, though, in order to maintain the core of who the character of Billy is, and also in a way that his leaving the show wouldn’t be a blip, and it would be something that kind of leaves an impact in all of our characters that is something that all of us deal with in real life.’
TAYE DIGGS: I thought it was so cool at first. I remember her saying they were going to give me a really great send off, something really intense, and I was very, very flattered and honored. But then, a few months later I was like, ‘Oh wait, there’s no way I can come back even if I change my mind.’ So that part stung.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: There were three of us in the writers’ room who lost our fathers at a young age. I was 24. Another one of my writers was in her early 20s. So it was that thing of — we knew, I knew Billy would never voluntarily leave the family, not after he fought so hard to get them back. So when I had that conversation with Taye, it took him a moment to be like, ‘Oh wow, it would really be goodbye.’ I was like, ‘Well, yes, of course, but we flash back to stuff.’ I’m constantly talking to my father, who’s no longer here. So I knew we were going to do episodes where the kids would have conversations with their dad, and we’d be able to bring Taye back. But I thought it was important that if he was leaving, that’s truly the only way he would leave his family behind. I knew, because of the caliber of actor we had on the show and how amazing this cast has been, that it gave us a chance to go through another real-life moment that so many people experience of losing a parent truly before you’re ready, and how that forever changes you.
DANIEL EZRA: Everything got a little less bright after Taye left. I missed having scenes with him, but it forced everyone to step up to play the arc of our characters individually and collective grief.
JAMIE TURNER: Losing Billy was not only a difficult decision, but it also re-set the series cause he was the only character from the pilot who had history with every single character on the show, which is unique in itself. Thanks to NK, who encouraged us to slow down and grieve Billy with pace, love and intention, we were able to tell four beautiful stories on the heels of his death that centered around Laura, Liv, Jordan and Spencer. That gave us a chance to really see how people grieve differently and what’s the expectation for them moving forward. Jordan’s journey resonated with me the most, mainly because he lived in Billy’s shadow for most of his life, but now he was being pushed to stand on his own and learn what being his own kind of Baker man looks like. Per usual, Mike Behling was incredible.
MICHAEL EVANS BEHLING: Taye was always a big advisor, and I was fortunate to have him take me under his wing in the early days. And one of the things I can remember him telling me was just to believe in myself, and I was there for a reason. I can recall feeling like I was a fish out of water on the set, working with a lot of people who were much, much more seasoned than me. He could kind of see that and feel that in me, and he was a big motivator for me to just trust my gut and go with whatever I was thinking, because I was there for a reason. I carry that with me to every set I go through now.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: We got to do it in such an individual way with each character, not just with Olivia and Jordan and Spencer, obviously, but what happens as a wife when you lose your life partner — Monet killed that storyline — and even for Grace, whose relationship with Billy was complicated, but he was always a second father to her children.
MONET MAZUR: That season in particular was really hard, because it was a slow burn how she went through the process and grieved. Every episode was like a slightly different stage of grief, and so to stay in that for months at a time was exhausting. I cried a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot every day. I was crying.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: It just gave us an opening to really dig deep into these characters, to set them up for adulthood and what their adulthood would now look like. They rose to the occasion.
Season 6 faced its own hurdles as the start of production and the eventual premiere was significantly delayed by the 2023 writers and actors strike. By the time that the writers reconvened, the future of the series was once again in question.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: Season 6 was the first time where I felt like, if this show does not return, we cannot end it in a way that feels open-ended or unfinished, because as a fan of TV shows myself, and as a fan of these characters, it just felt like they deserved some version of a wrap-up and a launch into a new chapter that could be the opening for a new season, should we be so blessed, which is why we were sort of like, ‘Okay, we are building towards Layla and Jordan’s wedding and building towards Spencer getting into the NFL and Olivia and Spencer getting engaged.’
DANIEL EZRA: I knew Season 6 he was going to finally get the girl, reach the NFL and win the Super Bowl. His story felt complete. He got everything he wanted when we met him.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: To a certain degree, I always knew where these characters were going to end. It was just a question of if they were going to end there sooner or later. With Daniel making the decision that he felt like he’d completed the heart of Spencer’s arc in Season 6, really it then became a question of: What does that do to everyone else in his life, and where they are in their journey?
It became clear very quickly that this would be difficult to accomplish within the 13-episode order that Season 6 had previously received.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: I would feel so cheated as a fan of Spencer and Olivia’s if I didn’t get to see them finally get married. I went to Greg Berlanti and had a conversation with him and Sarah Schechter about needing more episodes for this season, and why I wanted to complete Spencer and Olivia’s sort of journey, and also why I wanted those two extra episodes to also hint at the introduction of a new cast that could really be the launching point for Season 7. They were completely on board, and then it was a question of does the CW have room for an additional two episodes? Thanks to [CW President] Brad Schwartz, who really did fight that battle with getting us those two additional episodes for Season 6, so we could have Spencer and Olivia’s wedding, and that felt like a completion of their journey.
By all accounts the series could have ended here. But, why did it have to? These characters’ stories had ended, but that didn’t mean there weren’t stories left to tell at South Crenshaw and Beverly.
Toward the backend of Season 6, the writers had tested out some new, younger characters’ storylines to see if audiences would respond to the introduction of a new generation of high school students.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: Amina had been part of the show on and off as one of the younger characters, Preach’s daughter, and was a very sort of big part of Preach’s story arc over the seasons. So as we were looking at that new generation, she felt like an organic piece of it. That’s why we have the episode in Season 6 where our OG cast were working at that Shakespeare after-school program at Crenshaw, and we got to meet teenage Amina, and we got to meet Khalil, and we just got to get a sense of what that transition would look like if our guys kind of had to sort of become the responsible ones in the room.
ALEXIS CHIKAEZE: I actually started on the show as a co-star. I was at USC at the time. I hadn’t worked in a while, actually, like in like a year or so. Then the day I did my audition was possibly, like, the worst day I had at school. So I remember just walking to class, and I was supposed to be flying back home to Texas, and my agents reached out saying they sent my tape to producers and they loved it, and I just remember absolutely crying.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: Alexis, who plays Amina, there was something in her audition that was so captivating, that was such a beautiful mix of the feisty girl we met as a young girl on the street who stepped to Preach with all the strength and power and fearlessness to be like, ‘Who are you? What do you have to do with my mom? I think you might be my father’ — and keep that essence, but also bring in a lot of the insecurities that hit in your teen years for a girl, and especially as boys enter the mix. She’s growing up without her mom, and what all of that meant. Alexis just brought such a beautiful quality to it that, in that episode we sort of realized, ‘Oh, we actually think there could be something special here.’ In the original iteration of the show, it really felt like these two girls, Olivia and Layla, were fighting over Spencer. I wanted a girl to have the power of — there were these guys who were rivals but also united in that they thought there was something to love about Amina.
ALEXIS CHIKAEZE: I remember getting in there, and they just — everyone — Daniel, Mike, Greta, Sam, Chelsea — everyone seemed so big, but big not in a sense that they were these big personalities. They were just real, and the light that shined on each of them was just so bright, and they were so kind, and they were so welcoming, and they were so calm. That was such a breath of fresh air. I was only set for one episode.
ANTONIO J. BELL: I was tapped in early on. [I auditioned], I want to say somewhere between six and eight times. I heard no so many times, I thought that ‘you’re not supposed to fit for this particular project.’ Snowfall and All American, I was reading for a lot. So, when Khalil came around, I was grateful.
KAREEM J. GRIMES: By that time, it was just a family. When we got this new reboot of characters [we wanted] to just make sure to let them know, ‘Hey, you’re coming into a family, and we want to welcome you with open arms.’
ANTONIO J. BELL: I was pleasantly surprised, because oftentimes you come into shows later in the game, or you’re not a series regular, so everyone has their bonds established. Sometimes people are jaded, and maybe over their gig, but it was great to see that that wasn’t the case here. Everybody was still having fun. Everyone was still happy to be there. So Alexis and I, and at the time, they really welcomed us with open arms, even from Day 1. So that was really dope to be a part of the family from day one, even though we didn’t know that we would even come back.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: We tested out the idea of Amina growing up, the idea of what her classmates now looked like and what that world could look like, and but then again, I was in the state of mind of, ‘but if it’s the final season, then so be it.’ Then I went to Starbucks, and this rarely happens, because I’m behind the scenes, but the barista recognized my name, and she was like, ‘Oh, are you the NK that’s affiliated with All American?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ And then she burst into tears and started talking about how the show had changed her life and how she had dropped out of college, but because of the show it made her realize her dreams are worth pursuing. So she returned to college and actually graduated and got her degree and everything, and so, like, I’m crying, she’s crying. As I was leaving, she thanked me, and she said, ‘I just hope a show like this is around for my brother as he grows up, so that he has that too.’ It was when she said that, it really hit me, and I literally got in my car, I drove back to the lot, I ran into the writer’s room, and I was like, ‘We cannot end the show.’ Then it became really intentional, putting together a little sizzle reel that alluded to what the Season 7 storyline could be.
JAMIE TURNER: It was important for us to find a way to preserve the legacy of the show for the first six seasons by organically tying it to the next generation, hence Cassius’ (Osy Ikhile) Kilmonger-inspired journey and its connection to the Bakers.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: Introducing this whole idea that Billy might have a half brother that no one knew about, which meant a whole side of the Baker family was out there somewhere in the world, and given that Jordan had lost his dad, and his sister is getting married and moving clear across America, like he would be so obsessed with finding whatever family he could find and hold on to. Everyone saw the vision, and we ended up getting greenlit for our Season 7.
JAMIE TURNER: But it was also important for Cassius, KJ (Nathaniel McIntyre), Khalil, Amina and Tori (Lauryn Hardy) to feel different from the original cast while still using some of the universal themes that worked so well in the past for our OG cast. For instance, KJ and Khalil are an amalgam of Spencer, and Amina definitely has some of Olivia’s radical DNA and in some ways Tori and Layla have dealt with the same level of heartbreak and foolishness when it comes to relationships.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: Writing that Season 7 premiere script was truly one of the, honestly, toughest processes for me personally as a writer. I think that might be the script that I’ve written the most revisions of before I ever gave it to anyone to read. Just for me personally, I was so hard on myself as I was doing that, because I was like, is this good enough to launch a new chapter of the show? Does this just feel like another episode? I wanted it to feel both like a season premiere and a series premiere at the same time, and eventually it got there, or eventually my fingers just got tired.
LAURYN HARDY: I know I’ve said this before, but I am a fan of this show, so I have auditioned for this show before. To finally get cast on the show was genuinely the greatest moment of my life. I don’t know why I really resonated with Tori in general. I loved the idea of playing this powerful character who is not afraid to speak her mind, you know? She’s powerful, but she also has a vulnerability.
ANTONIO J. BELL: Growing up, I was a variation of Khalil. I [didn’t do] really well in school, and it wasn’t because I wasn’t smart. It was just because I didn’t fit that program. I didn’t understand why I was doing it. I didn’t really have the tribe that he had in my corner to really push me to want to excel in academics, so some of the same challenges he had, I had early on. I had a bit of a temper growing up and had to do a lot of work with myself to understand my shadow and get a little better at relating to people, so a lot of the elements of [Khalil being] misunderstood I really, really, really related to.
NATHANIEL MCINTYRE: One of my early memories was the table read, coming from New York, feeling super excited that I booked this role on such a dope show. Everybody was so excited to introduce us and include us in this story as it’s been taking a shift with Spencer’s character leaving the show. It was a whole new generation, so everybody was really excited for us to come in and fill in those shoes a bit, and I was just ready.
OSY IKHILE: I wanted to bring a different coach vibe. I didn’t want to try and emulate Billy or any other coach that did that before. I really wanted to lean more into the best-friend vibe that was written on the page and really honor that between Cassius and KJ. It was the first time that I could really draw from my own experiences with my father, which wasn’t always the best, and use that for the character in a healing way, but also in an honest portrayal of Cassius as well.
Season 7 premiered in early 2025 with the refreshed young cast at the center of stories that felt new and familiar at the same time. Where Olivia had given a voice to the voiceless on her podcast, Amina would soon be throwing herself in front of her fellow students to protect them from an ICE raid. KJ would come to grapple with the Baker family legacy right alongside Jordan. Tori was settling into her own convictions just as Layla once had, and Khalil was torn between his dreams and his reality, much like Spencer used to be.
Now, they were being guided by those who came before them, both on and off screen. The series was renewed for its final season last summer, setting the stage for 13 episodes to finally, truly bid farewell to a show that had withstood so much.
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: I cried almost every day of the final season. I knew what the final episode would be, always. Whatever season we’re in, when the series ends, even if it meant I had a flash forward in time or something, it would allow for this ending. So, there was some peace in knowing that, even with OG actors having left the show, the heart of that did not change. Now, the tougher issue was building to [that], now that we knew this was going to be our final season. What is the most organic path to this final moment to launch into the next chapter of their lives and what feels the most satisfying for these characters?
Even before the writer’s room came back, Jamie and I would sit and talk for hours about what felt like the right journey, and that’s ultimately how I landed on the timeline of this season spanning only one week in the character’s lives, because I didn’t want this season to be about this being a new chapter of growth for them. I wanted this season to be about: Has everything they’ve been through over the last seven to eight years prepared them for what is arguably one of the toughest weeks of all of their lives, as these crossroads start to intersect? Has it prepared them to meet the moment? And hopefully the answer is yes. That’s truly the question.
The final season welcomed back many of the original characters, and somewhere along the way, the assurance that the story was culminating in exactly the way Okoro Carroll intended becomes clear in something that Layla says to Khalil about the strength of chosen family after reminiscing on her own messy youth: “I learned love in this house,” she tells him. “I learned what it means to be family, and it’s not a fairytale. It isn’t perfect. It’s a journey with one constant: the people who are there for you no matter what.”
The series finale on Monday will include much of the original cast on screen together again, including Ezra and Logan. Ezra also returned to direct the episode.
DANIEL EZRA: [It was] like coming home. The show gave me more than I could have asked for. That was encapsulated in returning for the series finale as a director and an actor. Stepping away at Season 6 was the right move for me as an actor, but ending it how we started was the only way I wanted to close it as a human.
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