History-Making Ballerina Misty Copeland Is Creating a TV Show Based on Her Life

This is clearly the year of Misty Copeland. The dancer was named principal ballerina (opens in new tab) at the American Ballet Theatre, starred in a documentary (opens in new tab), debuted on Broadway (opens in new tab), and now, she's becoming a television mogul.

Deadline reports (opens in new tab) that Copeland is working with writer Tracy Oliver on a semi-autobiographical TV show, which would air on Fox. The drama's plot would follow "a diverse group of aspiring dancers" competing with one another for a spot at the, yup, American Ballet Theatre. Best case scenario: It's Center Stage, but on television.

Copeland's life story is definitely TV-worthy. She started ballet classes at 13, which is very late in the dance world, and rose through the ranks, breaking barriers not only as an African-American dancer, but also as a woman who doesn't have the typical dancer's body.

Oliver, who produced The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl with Issa Rae, first heard about Copeland two years ago, and knew immediately she wanted to work with her. So she cold called her with the idea, and Copeland said yes immediately. Oliver isn't a stranger to celeb-inspired projects; she's also writing and executive producing Ordinary People, a show based on John Legend and Crissy Teigen's relationship.

Since the plans were just announced, don't set your DVR just yet—it'll likely take a while for this to actually show up on television, and that's if the pilot gets picked up in the first place. But given Copeland's track record lately, it'll likely be a giant hit.

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