"Diarra from Detroit" credits city for inspiring new series
(CBS DETROIT) - This year's 313 Day was extra special for Detroit native Diarra Kilpatrick.
Kilpatrick is the creator, executive producer, and star of "Diarra from Detroit," a new series following a divorcing schoolteacher who refuses to believe she's been ghosted by her rebound date.
Kilpatrick flew home to Detroit to celebrate and promote the show's March 21 premiere on BET+.
"From an artistic point of view, the city really fed me," Kilpatrick said. "I was in Mosaic Youth Theater, I was always at the DIA, I was always at the Charles H. Wright Museum."
Kilpatrick says it's those experiences that helped shape the creative she is today, and when it comes to how she conceptualized the series, she credits Detroit for that.
"For one, there was a local Detroit story that was sort of inspiring, kind of ripped from the headlines news story that I think people will recognize when they watch the show," she said. "The other thing is, growing up here in Detroit, I spent a lot of time with my grandmother, circled up with her on the couch. We watched "Perry Mason," "Matlock," and, of course, "Murder, She Wrote," and I always wanted to see a Black female private investigator from that lens. From the lens of a Black woman."
Kilpatrick says because she didn't see it growing up, she created it. She now hopes other women see themselves represented in her series.