Miki Howard Biopic- Wait Til U See Who Was Cast As Gerald Levert & Chaka

Posted On : December 22, 2015

fb miki gerald and chakaIn case you haven’t heard by now, “Come Share My Love” singer, Miki Howard, has lived a very colorful life and her career in the music industry was a roller coaster ride of extreme highs and extreme lows that were peppered with bouts of cocaine and crack addiction, sober years, love, depression, R&B success and more. So much so, that there will now be a TV biopic released about her life titled The Miki Howard Story and it will be airing on TV One.

Darius McCrary (formerly of "Family Matters") starring as Gerald Levert and actress, Teyonnah Paris starring as Miki Howard
Darius McCrary (formerly of “Family Matters”) starring as Gerald Levert and actress, Teyonnah Paris starring as Miki Howard

Filming is almost wrapped on the project and we recently received some shots of the cast. The casting is just as interesting as the movie will probably be.

Teyonnah Paris as Miki Howard
Teyonnah Paris as Miki Howard

Miki Howard has always been very open and honest about how deeply in love she and Gerald Levert were and how they dated off and on for decades, and were still doing so at the time of his untimely death on November 10, 2006. Miki said they were so much in love that she even penned one of her hit songs about him, “Baby Be Mine.” So needless to say, the topic of Gerald levert will be a big part of Miki’s story.


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Teyonnah Paris as Miki Howard and Darius McCrary as Gerald Levert
Teyonnah Paris as Miki Howard and Darius McCrary as Gerald Levert

The actor playing Gerald is former Family Matters star, Darius McCrary. He’s a good actor and he can sing, so he seems like a pretty good fit for the part to me…hopefully.

Chaka Khan obviously played a vital part in Miki’s life as well, and she will be portrayed in the film also. But check this out family – they couldn’t have casted a better person to play Chaka because she will be portrayed by none other than her daughter, Indira Milini Khan! Not only does Chaka’s daughter look just like her, she can SANG just like her Momma too! So she is a perfect choice, don’t you think?

Chaka Khan's daughter, Indira Milini Khan portraying her mother in "The Miki Howard Story"
Chaka Khan’s daughter, Indira Milini Khan, portraying her mother in “The Miki Howard Story”
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Actress Teyonnah Paris as Miki Howard in “The Miki Howard Story”

Actress, Teyonnah Paris (who is also the star of Spike Lee’s new joint, Chi-raq) will be playing Miki Howard.

Lisa Raye and Teyonnah Paris on the set of "The Miki Howard Story"
Lisa Raye and Teyonnah Paris on the set of “The Miki Howard Story”

Lisa Raye will play music executive, Sylvia Rhone; Being Mary Jane actor, Gary Dourdan, will portray the singer and father of one of Miki’s children, Augie Johnson; Django star, Amari Cheatom, will play Miki Howard’s ex-husband, Eddie Phelps; and actress, Vanessa Bell Calloway, will play Miki’s mother, Josephine Howard.

Miki Howard (L), Teyonnah Paris (C), and directer and co-writer of "The Miki Howard Story," Christine Swanson
Miki Howard (L), Teyonnah Paris (C), and directer and co-writer of “The Miki Howard Story,” Christine Swanson

The movie is being directed by Christine Swanson, who also co-wrote the script with Rhonda Baraka.

The cast has some great actors in it and Miki’s life story seems quite interesting. So far it looks like this might be a pretty good movie. I wonder if they’ll touch on that whole Michael Jackson baby daddy rumor and Miki Howard’s close relationship with the Jacksons…I guess, we’ll have to wait and see about that one.

Hopefully this movie won’t fall into that TV movie syndrome of watered down portrayals of real life events. Don’t you hate that? I have faith in this cast and the director though, so I will be tuning in to check this one out in June 2016. Will you?

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We salute the incredible people and beautiful memories of that "old school". We’re not saying that every artist and every facet of the soul era was perfect, but the artists’ contributions to soul music and the old school memories of that particular time are PRICELESS.