FX will debut the fourth and final season if its Emmy-winning comedy series Atlanta on September 4, according to a new series teaser trailer.

The series, which ended its third season this past May, reunites series stars Donald Glover, Brian Tyree Henry, LaKeith Stanfield and Zazie Beetz as they return home after spending most of season three in Europe.

According to FX, season four finds the four friends back in their hometown, "but the question is, has Atlanta changed or have they?"

Atlanta earned three 2022 Emmy Award nominations, including a Best Actor in a Comedy nod for Glover, who won a 2017 Emmy in the category.

Also: Netflix's Slump Now Extends to Emmy Nominations

The series is executive produced by Donald Glover, Stephen Glover, Hiro Murai, Stefani Robinson, Paul Simms and Dianne McGunigle. ■

The return of FX's Emmy Award-winning comedy series Atlanta after a four-year hiatus tops the list of original shows debuting during the last full week of March. 

The 10-episode third season of the comedy, which stars Donald Glover, Brian Tyree Henry, Zazie Beetz and LaKeith Stanfield, debuts March 24 and takes place in Europe as the group embarks on the musical tour for rapper Paper Boi (Henry).

Netflix's Emmy-wining drama series Bridgerton returns for its second season on March 25 without its freshman season breakout star Regé-Jean Page. The new season of the Shondaland-produced series follows Bridgerton family member Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) as he searches for a wife. Netflix has already renewed the series for a third and fourth season. 

Also premiering this week is Paramount Plus's Halo, a sci-fi series based on the popular videogame franchise that focuses on a futuristic conflict between humanity and aliens.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for multiple shows debuting the week of March 21 to March 27 on cable networks and streaming services (for some videos, viewer discretion is advised):

March 22 – The Principles of Pleasure (documentary) – Netflix

March 23 – Parallels (sci-fi) – Disney Plus

March 24 – One Perfect Shot (documentary) – HBO Max

March 24 – Starstruck (comedy) HBO Max

March 24 – WWE Evil (documentary series) – Peacock

March 25 – Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls (competition series) – Prime Video

March 25 – No Woman No Try (documentary) – Prime Video

March 25 – Pachinko (drama) – Apple TV Plus

March 26 – The Pact (drama) – The Roku Channel

FX will bring back its Emmy-winning comedy series Atlanta in March after a three-year hiatus, the network said Wednesday.

The 10-episode third season, which stars Donald Glover, Brian Tyree Henry, LaKeith Stanfield and Zazie Beetz, premieres March 24 on FX and will stream the next day on Hulu, said network officials. Taking place almost entirely in Europe, season three finds “Earn” (Glover), “Alfred / ‘Paper Boi’” (Henry), “Darius” (Stanfield) and “Van” (Beetz) in the midst of a successful European tour, as the group navigates their new surroundings as outsiders, and struggle to adjust to the newfound success they had aspired to, according to FX.  

Atlanta last aired on FX in 2018. The series executive is produced by Donald Glover, Stephen Glover, Hiro Murai, Stefani Robinson, Paul Simms and Dianne McGunigle.

“We are thrilled to have Atlanta back with a new season on March 24th,” said FX Entertainment president Eric Schrier in a statement. “Once again, Donald Glover, the producers and stellar cast have delivered another signature season synonymous with the excellence that makes Atlanta so great.” ■

FX will bring back its critically-acclaimed comedy series Atlanta back for a third season, the network said Thursday.

The Emmy Award-winning series, created by and starring Donald Glover, will return to the network in 2019. Atlanta is produced by FX Productions and is executive produced by Glover, Paul Simms, Dianne McGuingle, Stephen Glover and Hiro Murai.

“Atlanta is phenomenal, achieving and exceeding what few television series have done,” said FX Networks and FX Productions co-president Nick Grad in a statement. “With Atlanta Robbin’ Season, Donald and his collaborators elevated the series to even greater heights, building on the enormous success of their award-winning first season. We’re grateful to the producers and our extraordinary cast and crew for achieving this level of excellence, and we share the excitement with our audience about the third season knowing they will continue to take us to unexpected and thrilling places.”

Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, has been making major waves this week with his controversial music video for “This Is America.” Released on YouTube while Glover performed the song live during last weekend’s Saturday Night Live, the video has been driving passionate conversation with its extreme scenes of gun violence and its implicit commentary on the state of American society today, particularly in regard to race.

We worked with social video analytics company Tubular Labs and emotion measurement company Canvs to see exactly how people are reacting to this groundbreaking video.

According to Tubular, in its first three days of release on YouTube, the video generated a whopping 44.6 million views (as of this writing, it has over 64 million). And, it had a Tubular ER3 rating of 2.7x, meaning three days after upload, the video had an engagement rate that was 2.7 times higher compared to the YouTube average.

Data from Canvs reveals that there have been 54,566 Emotional Reactions (ERs) on YouTube since the video was posted May 5. “Video,” “song,” “America,” “message” and “dancing” have been some of the most-mentioned terms; the fact that “video” is outpacing “song” in the discussion goes to show just how powerful the visuals are, while “message” underscores that people are obsessed with what, exactly, Glover is saying about America.

One specific Emotional Reaction that stood out was “brilliance,” which accounted for 4.7% of reactions from fans, primarily driven by Donald Glover who viewers think is a genius — and that “This Is America” is a work of art. 

Donald Glover was the big winner in the Lead Actor In a Comedy Series, winning his second primetime Emmy for the evening.

Read More: Complete coverage of the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards

Glover, who won for his role in FX's Atlanta, beat out an impressive list of competitors including Zach Galifianakis (FX’s Baskets), Anthony Anderson (ABC’sBlack-ish), Aziz Ansari (Netflix’sMaster of None), William H. Macy (Showtime’sShameless) and Jeffrey Tambor (Amazon’sTransparent)

Glover also won an Emmy earlier in the night for directing in a comedy series.

The big winners of the 2017 Emmy Awards nominations were HBO and Netflix with their combined 200+ nominations, along with shows like This Is Us, Westworld and Saturday Night Live.

Diversity also took center stage in Los Angeles during Thursday’s Emmy’s nominations program as a record number of actors of color received nominations for their outstanding performances on the small screen, from Emmy veterans like Viola Davis, Regina King and Anthony Anderson to newcomers like Snoop Dogg and Donald Glover.

Some of the top Emmy nominated shows also featured multiple nominations for actors of color. HBO’s Westworld drew a scripted series-high 22 nominations, including nominations for Thandie Newton and Jeffrey Wright for best supporting actress and actor in a drama, respectively.

Sterling K. Brown – who won an Emmy last year for his role in FX’s People v. O.J. Simpson – was nominated in the lead actor in a drama series category along with Ron Cephas Jones for best supporting actor in a drama and Brian Tyree Henry for guest drama actor for their roles in the 11-time Emmy nominated drama This Is Us.

Both Westworld and This Is Us were also nominated for best drama series.

Related: Strong Rookie Class Vies for Emmy Nods

The record number of Emmy nominations for actors of color comes despite some arguably glaring Emmy snubs. Voters for the major series and acting categories showed no love for HBO’s Insecure and its star Issa Rae or Oprah Winfrey’s performance in the pay service’s original movie The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – although the series is nominated in the best TV movie category. Also, last year’s Emmy winner in the best actor in a drama series category Rami Malek won’t be back to defend his title after not getting nominated for his starring role in USA’s Mr. Robot.

Still, there’s a lot for diversity champions to cheer about, even as a noticeable number of shows with lead actors of color are no longer on the air. Shows like Netflix’s The Get Down and Sense8, Fox’s Pitch, Hulu’s East Los High, WGN’s Underground, ABC’s American Crime and most recently NBC’s The Carmichael Show have all left broadcast, cable network and video streaming service lineups, taking with them some of the momentum the industry had been building with regards to showcasing diverse images and stories on screen.

As long as the industry continues to keep its focus on the inclusion of images and stories derived from a wide and diverse source of talented individuals, there will continue to be a large pool of deserving performances from which the TV academy can choose its best and brightest to honor.

On Jan. 8, actor and director Donald Glover was onstage at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles accepting the best comedy series Golden Globe Award for FX’s freshman series Atlanta, for which he was a first-time executive producer.

Glover, who would also win the Globe for best actor in a comedy series, thanked the “the black folks” in Atlanta for being “amazing people.”

What’s been amazing for the television industry is the infusion of young, African- American executive producers and creators like Glover who have created popular scripted programming with diverse images and storylines that, until just a few years ago, had been rarely seen on the small screen.

Whether its Selma producer Ava DuVernay examining the complex lives of estranged Louisiana siblings in OWN’s Queen Sugar, rapper 50 Cent and Courtney Kemp Agboh exploring the double life of a club owner who’s also a drug kingpin in Starz’s drama series Power, or Internet sensation Issa Rae keeping it real about the lives of single black women in HBO’s freshman comedy series Insecure, African-American creators and producers are stepping up to the plate and delivering quality, unfiltered programming with broad appeal to a cross section of viewers.

PART OF ‘GOLDEN’ WAVE

More newbie African-American TV creators and producers are set to make their debut in 2017, as an unprecedented 500 scripted series are expected to reach TV scereens this year, according to a recent FX study. Showtime has tapped actress Lena Waithe (Netflix’s Masters of None) to helm its upcoming drama series Chi, while several high-profile movie producers will move to the small screen with scripted projects, including Spike Lee (Netflix’s She’s Gotta Have It) and John Singleton (FX’s Snowfall).

Singleton, an Oscar-nominated director for 1991’s Boyz n the Hood, said television is now providing more opportunities to develop projects targeted to diverse viewers. Singleton, who earned an Emmy Award nomination for his direction of an episdode of FX’s The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, will also produce Rebel, a police drama series for BET set to debut in March.

“With TV, it’s like you’re making a movie every week,” Singleton said.

Black History Month Viewing Guides:What to Watch | Interstitals

As the definition of what constitutes TV widens, African-American-helmed scripted series are making their mark in the current environment of high-quality programming.

“There’s been talk about the golden age of television for a while now, and because there are so many ways to get your content out there it opens the door for a lot more voices to be heard instead of when there were just three or six gatekeepers controlling everything people see,” said music superstar John Legend, an executive producer of WGN America’s sophomore drama series Underground, which chronicles the escape of antebellum-era Southern slaves via the Underground Railroad.

Legend added, “It has been great for diversity on television.”

Related > MCN Original Video: John Legend Discusses 'Underground' Season 2

Still, the question remains whether the influx of African-American showrunners and producers will be a passing trend or a key feature of television’s future. Even as African-American-produced, directed and created projects on cable networks proliferate across cable networks and streaming services, minority producers remain rare behind the camera.

Minority show creators in general represented just 7.8% of cable scripted shows during the 2013-14 season, according to the UCLA 2016 Hollywood Diversity Report. While those numbers will undoubtedly climb over the next few years as post-2014 shows like ABC’s Black-ish and Starz’s Power are factored in, Darnell Hunt, director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA, said at September’s NAMIC Conference that the representation numbers will still remain below the overall U.S. minority population.

The history of the entertainment industry is littered with periods when movies and TV shows featuring African-American culture looked to have broken into the mainstream, only to nearly vanish within a few years, Insecure showrunner Prentice Penny said.

In particular, he pointed to what was initially thought of as the “Golden Age” of diversity in movies during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when films such as Menace II Society, She’s Gotta Have It and Boyz n the Hood seemed ready to open doors to more films directed and produced by African-Americans. But in the 2000s, few movies from mainstream studios were being helmed by African-American writers, directors and producers.

“The truth is I have no idea,” Penny said when asked whether the current trend of African-American produced content will be long-lasting. “There are always those moments where they make all of these projects and then, 10 years later, there’s nothing. I hope this is [sustainable] and that lots of voices can get heard.”

Certainly, the critical and audience appeal for these shows bodes well for a potentially sustained future. FX’s Atlanta, which follows the lives of cousins trying to make it big in the city’s rap scene, drew 3 million viewers in its Sept. 6 premiere, the most for an FX series in five years. That was followed by a slew of industry accolades, including a Critics’ Choice Award and two Golden Globe Awards for Glover, both as an actor and producer of the series.

Last month, FX rewarded Glover with an exclusive television production deal that includes a second season of Atlanta, set to return in 2018 after Glover finishes his work on the next Star Wars film.

“We’re going to try to get that show back as soon as we can because there’s a great audience that wants that show,” FX president Eric Schrier said during the network’s Television Critics Association tour press event last month.

HBO’s Insecure, which drew 1.1 million viewers in its Oct. 9 premiere, has also been renewed for a second season. Penny — who will produce and star in truTV’s reality series Upscale With Prentice Penny, set to debut in March — said he was initially surprised at the incredibly positive response to the show.

“There’s no formula … you have no idea what people will respond to,” he said. “I feel blessed that people responded to it. You can’t control what the viewing public decides to watch, so you just have to do the best you can.”

He also said that the expansion of distribution outlets via online streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and YouTube will continue to create opportunities for diverse images and stories to be produced.

Added Underground’s Legend: “The landscape was much different then because there are way more distribution channels now — not just cable, satellite or premium channels but so many other places, like Netflix and Hulu, where people can view content. As content creators, its gives us more latitude to populate these different channels with interesting and diverse content.

“It’s made TV more diverse than film because there are so many different opportunities for audiences to get what they’re looking for on television, which means a diverse range of viewpoints and voice can be seen and heard,” Legend added.

Beyond selected hit shows, networks are well aware that African- American viewers are an important audience. African-Americans continue to consume more video than any other group, thereby increasing the viability of content that appeals directly to those viewers. African-Americans average more than 42 hours of live TV viewing during the third quarter of 2016, according to Nielsen’s Total Audience Report, well above the U.S. average of 29 hours, Hispanics (22 hours) and Asian-Americans (14 hours).

KEY TO KEEPING AUDIENCES

Also, as the overall U.S. population continues to diversify, the need for new, unique stories told from a different point of view will force linear network distributors to continue to foster the development of content created by producers and creators of color — otherwise, audiences will migrate to the web, Penny said.

“I think that in the digital space people can just make their own content and put it out there for people to connect to right away,” Penny said. “It changes how we get content to the marketplace, so it definitely opens the door for literally anybody of any color or nationality that has something to say to put it out and get a response right away.”

FX Networks president John Landgraf said 52% of FX’s show directors in 2017 will not be white men, in an effort to better reflect the diversity of the network’s audience.

“We’re going to keep going until everything about our channel and every aspect of our channel is fair and better reflects the diversity of the population of the country we live in, and is not as skewed as the whole industry has been towards white heterosexual males,” Landgraf said at the last month’s Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour.

Added Underground executive producer Misha Green: “I think the diversification of stories that are being told right now will continue because there are more outlets. I think more content is needed, and the gatekeepers who wanted to keep the gate closed are now saying we need shows. I think the increase of content has helped more diverse voices come through, but more still need to come through. I can’t wait to see and hear those voices.”

Get complete coverage of the 2017 Winter Press Tour.

The number of original scripted programming won’t reach its peak until 2017 or 2018, according to FX Networks president John Landgraf.

Landgraf, speaking during the network’s Television Critics Association Winter press tour executive session Thursday, said scripted television programing hasn’t peaked yet, despite 454 scripted programs currently on cable, broadcast and streaming services.

RELATED > TCA17: FX Signs Donald Glover to Deal With FX Productions

While admitting he was wrong in his original prediction regarding the peak of scripted fare, he nevertheless said that he was “going out on a limb” to predict that the number of scripted shows will begin to decline sometime in 2017 or 2018.

He added that the network had its best year in 2016 and has a strong lineup set for 2017, although two of the network’s biggest shows of last year – Atlanta and American Crime Story – won’t return until 2018.

He added Atlanta star and recent Golden Globe winner Donald Glover will be busy working on the next Star Wars film, delaying the show’s second season, while FX wants to take its time developing American Crime Story’s focus on Hurricane Katrina.

RELATED > TCA17: FX Scares Up Two More Seasons of ‘American Horror Story’

“We have high ambitions for this franchise,” Landgraf said. “It’s taken time to get material that we’ve happy with.”

FX has also made strides in diversifying its showrunners, according to Landgraf, with non-white males representing 52% of its original series producers in 2016.

“It’s a work in progress,” Landgraf said. “We’re going to keep going until everything about our channel is fair and better reflects the diversity of the country that we live in. “

Get complete coverage of the 2017 Winter Press Tour

Fresh off of his recent Golden Globes win, FX has signed Atlanta actor/producer Donald Glover to an exclusive overall television production deal, the company said Thursday in advance of its TCA Winter Critics tour presentation 

Under the new deal, Glover -- who this past Sunday won the Golden Globes award for best actor in a comedy series for his portrayal of Earnest “Earn” Marks on FX’s freshman series Atlanta, which also the Globes Award for best comedy series – will develop TV series for FX Networks as well as for other networks and streaming services, according to Nick Grad and Eric Schrier, presidents of original programming, FX Networks and FX Productions.

Glover will also remain producer and star of Altanta, which will return to FX for a second season in 2018.

“Donald is a remarkable artist, effortlessly shifting from actor to writer, producer, director and musician to create one amazing project after another,” Grad said in a statement. “Atlanta was just the beginning, the breakout comedy of the year and a series revered as much for its originality as its honest look at the experience of being aspiring, young and black in that legendary city. We’re proud to partner with Donald in an overall deal that will allow him to continue turning his creative vision into incredible television.”

Atlanta’s Donald Glover wrapped up a big night for the Fx series with a Golden Globes win for best actor in a comedy series.

Glover, who plays Earnest “Earn” Marks in the freshman FX series, beat out Anthony Anderson (Black-ish), Gael Garcia Bernal (Mozart In The Jungle), Nick Nolte (Graves), and Jeffrey Tambor (Transparent) for top honors in the category.

Earlier in the night, Atlanta won the Golden Globes award for best comedy series.

FX’s freshman series Atlanta was a surprise Golden Globes winner for best comedy series.

The series, created and starring Donald Glover (Community), beat out a veteran lineup of comedy shows including Black-ish, Mozart In The Jungle, Transparent and Veep for the Golden Globe award for Television Series – Musical or Comedy.

Glover is also nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy award.

The 2016-17 TV and movie awards season has hit high gear with the presentation of Critics’ Choice Awards winners as well as nominations for Golden Globe Awards, NAACP Image Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards. While TV viewers and critics will undoubtedly cheer shows recognized by the major awards groups — and lament over their favorite shows that did not make the awards cut — The Wire saw three trends coming out of the awards blitz that could affect the television industry heading into the new year.

More love for diverse casting: A number of new scripted series with predominately multicultural casts won Critics’ Choice Awards in major categories or earned multiple Golden Globe, NAACP Image or SAG Award nominations. Established and more mainstream series like Empire and Black-ish continued to remain popular with awards judges, garnering numerous nominations. The most prominent and eye-opening nods, though, were for more niche shows like FX’s hip hop-flavored series Atlanta, as creator and star Donald Glover won a Critics’ Choice Award for best actor in a comedy series and Golden Globe nomination in the same category, and HBO’s comedy series Insecure, which nabbed eight NAACP Image Award nominations and a Golden Globe best comedy actress nod for Issa Rae, star of the freshman comedy series. Also, Golden Globe, SAG and NAACP award nominations for Thandie Newton’s performance as a newly sentient android in HBO’s Westworld, and multiple nods for FX limited series The People v. O.J. Simpson and actors including Courtney B. Vance and Sterling K. Brown (also nominated for an NAACP Image Award for NBC’s This Is Us) demonstrate that, when given a chance, actors of color can turn in award-defining performances.

Newbie series bring buzz: During every awards season there seems to be a new series that captures the zeitgeist of the viewer and the eye of judges. This season, several new shows have gained major award recognition. Half of the Critics’ Choice Awards winners in the major drama categories were from freshman series Westworld (HBO) and The Crown (Netflix). Four out of the five Golden Globes-nominated series in the drama category are from first-year shows (The Crown, Westworld, This Is Us and Netflix’s Stranger Things). Four of the five SAG Awards nominations for “outstanding performance by a female actor in a drama series” were from new series, including two from binge-viewing favorite Stranger Things. With 400-plus scripted series for U.S. audiences to choose from, new shows are cutting through the clutter to build both audiences and critical acclaim.

Cable, streaming services dominate TV drama: Anyone who doubted whether the best and most critically acclaimed shows on television today are on cable networks and streaming services only has to look at recent award-winning and nominated shows in the major drama categories. Broadcast network shows were virtually shut out of Critics’ Choice Awards wins in all six drama categories and four of six comedy categories. On the nominations front, This Is Us is the lone broadcast entry in 15 Golden Globes drama category nominations and PBS’s recently ended Downton Abbey staved off a complete SAG Awards nominations sweep for cable and streaming services in major drama series categories. Shows from Netflix (The Crown, Stranger Things), HBO (Westworld, Game of Thrones), USA Network (Mr. Robot), AMC (Better Call Saul), FX (The Americans) and Starz (Outlander) have set the standard for quality among drama series that the broadcast networks will have to live up to if they are to be recognized during future awards seasons.

Reindeer Rundown: NORAD Set for Holiday

To ensure that cable operators and other media outlets can help prevent highflying grandmas from getting run over by flying reindeer and keep up with the lively and quick doings of the little man with the sack, NORAD, the joint U.S.-Canada aerospace warning and control operation, is inviting them to participate in this year’s Santa Claus tracking operation “in a variety of ways.”

NORAD, which annually charts Santa’s Christmas Eve/Christmas Day flights over North American airspace, is allowing media outlets to embed its “track Santa” logo, countdown clock and live tracking map on their websites.

Those outlets will also be authorized to tap into the Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS) system for live satellite interviews (6 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Dec. 24) with senior NORAD command leaders (email requests to NORADTracksSanta@dvidshub.net). Various flight crews will escort the flight, per usual.

Starting at 2:01 a.m., the website will stream video of Santa preparing the flight and then from several locations en route. Those with OnStar can also press the button in their cars to locate Santa in his sleigh. No word on whether car-to-sleigh communications are mandated under the Department of Transportation’s new V2V “light duty” vehicles proposal issued last week, though Santa’s sleigh probably qualifies as heavy duty.

NORAD has tracked Santa since 1955. Before that, it was mostly word-of-mouth between siblings talking excitedly, snug in their beds, while they were supposed to be asleep.

— John Eggerton

Ball-Watcher Update: Times Square Hosts Set

Updating our item on the New Year’s Day festivities in Times Square, the talent, or at least most of it, has been named for the free, anchored, coverage of the ball drop that the Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment are making available to media outlets.

Singers Gavin DeGraw (“She Sets the City on Fire”) and Rachel Platten (“Fight Song” and “Stand By You”) will be co-headlining the live, commercial- free feeds and the webcast. Platten also gets the honors of carrying on the tradition of performing John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

Univision will provide “three star musical performances,” but they have yet to be named.

Returning as host of the Web coverage will be Spotify’s “global head of rock” Allison Hagendorf, joined by Jonathan Bennett (Mean Girls, Cake Wars).

— John Eggerton

RELATED: Atlanta Review 

FX’s comedy series Atlanta drew big numbers among total viewers and adults 18-49 in its Sept. 6 debut.

The series, created by and starring Donald Glover (Community), averaged 3 million total viewers (Nielsen Live +3 ratings), making it the most watched network comedy series premiere since Wilfred in 2011, according to the network.

In addition, the series -- in which two cousins work through the Atlanta music scene in order to better their lives – delivered 1.9 million adults 18-49, again the most for the network since Wilfred.

A second original episode of Atlanta airing that night averaged 1.6 million viewers and 1.1 million adults 18-49, according to FX.

FX has greenlit the first season of series Atlanta, the network said Thursday (Oct. 16).

The series, created by and starring Donald Glover (Community) that follows the exploits of two cousins on their way up through the Atlanta rap scene, will air on FX in 2016, according to Nick Grad and Eric Schrier, Presidents of Original Programming for FX Networks and FX Productions.

Atlanta will also star Brian Tyree Henry, Lakeith Lee Stanfield and Zazie Beetz, according to FX.

 “Atlanta draws on Donald’s considerable talents as a musician, actor and writer to give us something unique,” Grad said. “The story is made all the more powerful by the great cast and the contributions of Donald’s fellow Executive Producer Paul Simms and director Hiro Murai. We can’t wait to for the debut of Atlanta next year.”

FX Networks has commissioned production of comedy series pilot Atlanta from actor/writer Donald Glover, the network said Friday.

Glover (Community, 30 Rock) will serve as executive producer of the pilot, which revolves around the exploits of two cousins making their way up the Atlanta rap music scene, said network officials.

“Donald Glover is a uniquely talented actor and performer who brings real-life experience to this subject matter,” said Nick Grad, president of original programming for FX Networks and FX Productions. “Not only is Donald a very gifted actor, he has achieved tremendous success and acclaim as the musical artist Childish Gambino.  He, along with Paul Simms, has a very honest, sometimes serious, and funny perspective on life, the world of rap music and the city of Atlanta.”