(AllHipHop News) On March 20, Netflix will premiere the four-part biographical limited series Self Made: Inspired By the Life of Madam C.J. Walker. Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer stars as the historic entrepreneur/philanthropist.
Besides Spencer, the cast also features Blair Underwood as Walker’s husband Charles Joseph Walker, Tiffany Haddish as her daughter Leila, Carmen Ejogo as her business rival Addie Monroe, Garrett Morris as her father-in-law, Kevin Carroll as her lawyer Ransom, and Bill Bellamy as Ransom’s cousin Sweetness.
Self Made was inspired by On Her Own Ground, a book written by Walker’s great-great-granddaughter A’Lelia Bundles. The four-part limited series was created by Nicole Jefferson Asher with co-showrunners Elle Johnson and Janine Sherman Barrois. Kasi Lemmons and DeMane Davis served as the program’s directors.
Madam C. J. Walker (born Sarah Breedlove) became a cultural icon for developing a line of cosmetics and hair care products for black women in the early 1900s. The daughter of slaves founded the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, and she is widely considered the first female African-American millionaire.