EXCLUSIVE: Fargo standout Allison Tolman has been cast as the lead in Emergence, NBC’s mystery drama pilot from Kevin (Probably) Saves the World creators/executive producers Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters, director Paul McGuigan and ABC Studios.
Written by Fazekas and Butters, Emergence is a character-driven genre thriller that centers around a police chief (Tolman) who takes in a young child that she finds near the site of a mysterious accident who has no memory of what has happened. The investigation draws her into a conspiracy larger than she ever imagined, and the child’s identity is at the center of it all.
Tolman’s Jo is the police chief on Long Island’s Peconic Bay. Newly divorced from Alex, Jo lives with her 14-year-old daughter, Bree, and her ex-firefighter father, Ed.
Fazekas and Butters executive produce with McGuigan, who is attached to direct. Robert Atwood, development executive for the Fazekas & Butters production company, is a producer. ABC Studios, where Fazekas and Butters are under an overall deal, is the studio.
Tolman, known for her role of another cop, Deputy Molly Solverson in FX’s Fargo, was among the sought-after actors for pilots this season, fielding multiple offers both in comedy and drama. She also previously toplined ABC’s comedy series Downward Dog and recurred in Castle Rock, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Good Girls, Me, Myself and I and Mosaic, among others. Tolman, who also is set to appear on CBS All Access’ The Twilight Zone, is repped by UTA, Odenkirk Provissiero and Ziffren Brittenham.
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