TheCable

Hakeem Kae-Kazim, a Nigerian actor who played the lead actor in classic movie, Hotel Rwanda, is in the cast of A&E’s miniseries remake of Roots.

Kae-Kazim will play Samson on the show, while being joined by stars like Malachi Kirby, who will play Kunta Kinte, and Regé-Jean Page, who will play Chicken George.

Malachi was handpicked by executive producers Will Packer and LeVar Burton, who played the original Kunta Kinte.

According to the series, Samson is a slave on the plantation of John Waller who is tasked with teaching everything to Kunta Kinte when he arrives.

Laurence Fishburne will appear as Alex Haley, the author of the novel ‘Roots: The Saga of an American Family’, and Anna Paquin, Forest Whitaker and Jonathan Rhys Meyers are also part of the high-profile cast.

Production is underway in New Orleans and South Africa, as Kae-Kazim earlier tweeted.

“In LA to shoot an episode of scorpions then off to New Orleans to shoot Root’s,” he said.

Roots is an A+E Studios production in association with Marc Toberoff and The Wolper Organisation, the company which produced the original Roots.

Will Packer, Marc Toberoff, Mark Wolper, Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal are the executive producers, while LeVar Burton and Korin Huggins are co-executive producers.

Kae-Kazim is also well known for his role as Mr. Scott on Starz’s pirate drama Black Sails and the 53-year-old also recently recurred on Syfy’s Dominion.