Starz announced today that three key roles have been cast for their new original series Sweetbitter. The series has a six-episode order for its first season.
Tom Sturridge (The Hollow Crown, On the Road), Caitlin FitzGerald (Masters of Sex, Rectify) and Paul Sparks (House of Cards, The Girlfriend Experience) have all been added to the main cast. They join series star Ella Purnell (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Never Let Me Go, Kick-Ass 2, Maleficent) in the lead role of “Tess.”
In the series Sturridge will portray “Jake,” a recklessly beautiful bartender, and Caitlin FitzGerald will play “Simone” – a sommelier who is the embodiment of self-possession, beauty, and authority at the restaurant. Simone and Jake awaken, in Tess, a sense of lust she has never felt before. “Howard,” the General Manager of the restaurant and father-figure to the group who work there, will be portrayed by Paul Sparks.
Evan Jonigkeit (X-Men: Days of Future Past, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Daniyar (Claws, Scandal), Eden Epstein (In Between Men, Blind) and Jasmine Mathews (Blue Bloods, Heathers) round out the cast as series regulars.
Based on Stephanie Danler’s novel of the same name. Sweetbitter is described as follows: Shortly after arriving in New York City, Tess lands a job at a celebrated downtown restaurant. Swiftly introduced to the world of drugs, drinking, love, lust, dive bars and fine dining, she learns to navigate the chaotically alluring, yet punishing life she has stumbled upon. “Sweetbitter” is the story of a young woman’s coming-of-age, set against the rich and grimy backdrop of exclusive restaurants, conjuring a nonstop and high-adrenaline world evoking the possibility, beauty and fragility of being young and adrift.
Emmy and DGA Award-winning writer/director Richard Shepard (The Matador, Dom Hemingway) will direct the series’ premiere episode. Shepard will also serve as executive producer with Stu Zicherman (The Americans The Affair), Plan B Entertainment, and Stephanie Danler, who has written the script for the first episode.
