Latest in Oz

Granville Adams, who portrayed Zahir Arif in HBO’s Oz, died after a battle with cancer. He was 58. Showbiz & Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2021 – Photo Gallery The news was confirmed on Sunday by multiple friends including Oz‘s showrunner/executive producer Tom Fontana, and costars Kirk Acevedo and Harold Perrineau. “I…

“I'm starting to feel like this is my funeral,” Oz creator Tom Fontana joked, while sitting down for an ATX retrospective on Monday, celebrating his series’ enduring impact. During the lively, foul-mouthed conversation, moderator Eric Deggans of NPR noted that the prison drama was the first one-hour drama series ever…

Craig “Mums” Grant, an actor and poet who appeared in all six seasons of HBO’s prison drama Oz among dozens of film, TV and stage credits, died Thursday, apparently of natural causes, according to his representatives. He was 52. Billed as muMs da Schemer, the name he used during his early slam-poetry years, Grant…

George Morfogen, an actor whose career spanned Broadway (most recently in 2008’s A Man For All Seasons), film (1972’s What’s Up, Doc?) and the TV role for which he’s probably most widely known — as the seen-it-all inmate Bob Rebadow of HBO’s Oz — died March 8 at his home in New York. His death was announced by his…

The WGA East said today that Tom Fontana, who wrote for such classic TV dramas as Homicide: Life on the Street, Oz and St. Elsewhere and continues to be busy, will receive its Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Career Achievement. He will be feted February 17 during the 71st annual Writers Guild Awards at New York's Edison…

One of the most prolific actors of our time, J.K. Simmons never seems to slow down, with a resume far too long to list here, but which includes everything from Juno to La La Land, to The Closer, True Grit, Justice League, and an Oscar and Globe-winning turn in Whiplash. His latest incarnation in Starz's Counterpart…

David Simon and Tom Fontana have multiple cult hits between them, but they say it all started with Homicide: Life on the Street. The two sat down to discuss their history, their shows and how life at HBO has changed in the post-Sopranos age at the ATX TV Fest in Austin Saturday. Fontana says it was Barry Levinson who…

Sean David Gerard Whitesell, a noted television writer and producer who also acted during his career, died in Los Angeles on December 28 following a battle with Glioblastoma Multiforme. He was 52. The fifth of 6 brothers, among them WME co-CEO Patrick Whitesell, Sean was born in Iowa Falls, Iowa in 1963. He attended…

Deadline Comic-Con film correspondent Luke Y Thompson files: If Comic-Cons can be said to have a theme, this year’s which began Wednesday is "free-for-all." Usually, there is one property that is expected to dominate (IRON MAN and TRON LEGACY have been there, done that) and one that upsets (300, SIN CITY). This year…

EXCLUSIVE: The smash hit stage musical Wicked is taking its first formative steps toward the movie screen. I’m told the musical’s producer Marc Platt, book writer Winnie Holzman, and songwriter Stephen Schwartz have begun meeting with filmmakers. Insiders confirm that JJ Abrams, James Mangold, Ryan Murphy, and Rob Mars…