Five seasons into Abbott Elementary , Janelle James has seen a whole new class of young actors come into their talent.

The Golden Globe nominee explained that there aren’t “a lot of dark-skinned Black kids” with agents, which made it initially difficult casting the ABC sitcom, which is set in a predominantly Black elementary school in Philadelphia.

“If I remember, in our early seasons, they had to go find kids,” she said on Vulture’s Good One podcast. “There aren’t a lot of dark-skinned Black kids in LA who are in acting. Acting, especially as a kid, is a very expensive thing. You have to have a parent that is free to take you around and do auditions and stuff. And that doesn’t really exist in the Black community.”

James continued, “So, we had to go find them. A lot of them

See Full Page