Daveed Diggs at the Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards Behind The Velvet Rope with Arthur Kade
Daveed Diggs, 35, has had great success since leaving the megahit play Hamilton for which he won a Tony.
It can be argued that he has the most hyphenated roles in Hollywood at the moment. He is a rapper, writer, actor, playwright, producer, voice over actor, musician and Broadway star.
Showrunner can be added to that long list. Diggs is one of the executive producers of the anticipated ABC comedy The Mayor. In addition, he is writing the bulk of the music for the sitcom with William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes who make up the rap band Clipping with Diggs.
The Mayor is about an aspiring West Coast rapper who runs for mayor as a prank and wins unexpectedly. Diggs says he got involved with the show after Late Night writer Jeremy Bronson asked him if he was interested in co-producing the show.
Daveed admits that he does not know much about how politics work but says he found the idea of a show centering on rap and local politics an intrigued challenge. Rap music has a strong social element and without question Clipping’s music addresses societal issues.
Bronson says The Mayor will speak to all kinds of issues including police brutality through rap. Rap is an extremely popular and influential form of music, but it will remain to be seen if prime-time television is ready for Daveed’s unique and powerful experimental style of rap.
Diggs is juggling many aspects of his career and appreciates the many avenues his career. Daveed revealed in the end it all comes back to the music and went on to say he is grateful to be working with Hutson and Snipes on the soundtrack.
The new comedy stars Brandon Michael Hall, Yvette Nicole Brown and Lea Michele. At this point, it is unclear if Diggs will appear on screen. The Mayor debuts Tuesday October 3 at 9 PM on ABC.
