Making TV show on South Side was ‘a little scary’ but essential, says star Courtney B. Vance

In the searing and instantly engrossing Chicago-based series “61^st Street,” a drug dealer is shot dead by police, a cop dies while pursuing a suspect — and the ramifications are felt throughout the city, in the judicial system, in the jail, in the media, on the streets and in the homes of a myriad of families whose lives will be profoundly and forever changed by this terrible but all too familiar scenario.

Co-executive produced by Michael B. Jordan, filmed in Chicago, debuting April 10 on AMC, AMC+ and ALLBLK and slated for a two-year run, “61^st Street” stars recent Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis (“King Richard”), Holt McCallany (“Mindhunter”), Mark O’Brien (“City on a Hill”) — and at the center of it all, Courtney B. Vance. The Tony and Emmy Award winner has mastered the stage in productions such as “Fences” and “Six Degrees of Separation,” appeared in films such as “Hamburger Hill,” “The Preacher’s Wife” and “Isle of Dogs,” and starred in TV projects such as “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” “Genius: Aretha” and “Lovecraft Country.”