Black Cake is an American drama television series. It is based on Charmaine Wilkerson's novel of the same name, and premiered on Hulu in 2023. It stars Chipo Chung, Mia Isaac, Adrienne Warren, Ashley Thomas and Glynn Turman. The show was produced by Harpo Productions, with Oprah Winfrey as one of the main executive producers. It received generally positive reviews from critics.
Black Cake was canceled after one season.
Contents
Premise
Two siblings learn about their late mother's dark past after she leaves her recordings to them.
Cast
Main
Chipo Chung as Eleanor Bennett
Mia Isaac as Coventina "Covey" Lyncook
Adrienne Warren as Benny Bennett
Ashley Thomas as Byron Bennett
Lashay Anderson as Bunny Pringle
Faith Alabi as Pearl Thomas
Glynn Turman as Charles Mitch
Ahmed Elhaj as Gibbs Grant
Recurring
Jade Eshete as Mathilda
Jeremiah Birkett as Bert Bennett
Rupert Evans as Everett
Lorenzo Bulgin as Percival Henry
Anthony Mark Barrow as Clarence "Little Man" Henry
Simon Wan as Lin
Karise Yansen as Eleanor "Elly" Douglas
Elliot Cowan as Steve
Sonita Henry as Mabel Mathilda Martin
Release
The trailer of Black Cake was released on October 2, 2023. The television series premiered on Hulu in the United States, Disney+ under the Star banner internationally and Star+ In Latin America. on November 1, 2023.
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of 15 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.80/10. The website's consensus reads: "Cleverly plotted and viscerally well-acted, Black Cake is an engrossing drama that can have its surprising twists and eat them, too." On Metacritic, the series has a score of 68 out of 100, based on 9 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Ronda Racha Penrice of TheWrap described Black Cake as groundbreaking and entertaining, praised the performances of the cast, and said, "It cracks open the door for never-ending narrative possibilities for truly diverse and dynamic stories." Judy Berman of Time stated Black Cake is one of the few examples of a show in which the "floridly emotional tone serves the story," praised the performances of the actors, and complimented how the television series approaches the concept of family secrets.
Accolades
Black Cake was one of 200 television series that received the ReFrame Stamp for the years 2023 to 2024. The stamp is awarded by the gender equity coalition ReFrame and industry database IMDbPro for film and television projects that are proven to have gender-balanced hiring, with stamps being awarded to projects that hire female-identifying people, especially women of color, in four out of eight key roles for their production.