Actor Emilio Evans, co-star of the TV series Makeup and Breakup (aka Makeup X Breakup), will return to the screen starting July 6 when the half-hour drama premieres its second season on the popular streaming platform Allblk. Tv. (All Black TV).
Set in New York City, Makeup X Breakup is written and directed by creator Eric Dickens. It follows the complicated romantic relationships of young African American friends with their present and former lovers. The ensemble cast also features Nicolette Ellis, Omar Salmon, Kamel Goffin, Olivia Gray, Karmie Berry, and Sean Dominic.
Evans, a Harlem-based actor of Jamaican parentage, plays the role of Bryce Grove, a marketing executive who, as Evans puts it, “Has gone through hardships in his life that have molded him into the man he has become. He can be pretty naïve and aloof in his approach to and relationships with women, and consequently, things don’t always go well for him in his dating world.”
Evans is proud of the years-long journey the series has taken before arriving at its new home on Allblk, a subsidiary of parent company AMC Networks. Responding to an open casting call back in 2016, his audition led to him becoming an original cast member when the show premiered later that year on YouTube as a series of 10-minute episodes. The massive popularity of the series led to a pickup by BET for their online streaming platform for several years and, ultimately, a new home at Allblk as of 2022.
“All of our past episodes are now available on Allblk. Tv and presented as our official season one,” Evans explains, “So new viewers now have a chance to catch up on whatever they missed before our season two premiere arrives on July 6.”
Season two, he says, will be enjoyable because it is a ‘prequel’ to season one- meaning audiences will be re-introduced to the show’s characters at a younger age, before how they were presented in the first season. “Audiences can expect to see some great storytelling with people of color as the focus, and that’s very exciting for me, based on my plans for the future.”
Ultimately, Evans- who decided to become an actor at age 7 to overcome his shyness and later studied theatre at Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) – intends to establish his own production company. He hopes to write, produce and appear in content that will create more opportunities for artists of color and bring his Jamaican roots fully to the fore.
“My mother is from Tivoli Gardens, and my father is from Portland,” he says. “They immigrated here quite young, so I was born in New York and raised mostly in the deeply Jamaican part of the Bronx. But I am still very close to my large family back in Jamaica – aunts, uncles, and cousins. I’m very proud of my Jamaican heritage and would love to give Jamaicans another reason to be proud by telling some of our stories. I’ve never cared for how we’ve been portrayed in the media. It’s usually some forced accent and mannerisms that I feel come off as inauthentic more than anything. We haven’t truly tapped the full potential of Jamaicans and Jamaican stories on TV or film in an interesting way just yet. I’m hoping to change that, though.”
He also draws inspiration from the journey that Makeup X Breakup has taken- from 10 minutes YouTube videos to full-fledged, half-hour drama on a mainstream platform available globally. “It tells me that the world is now a global village, and there is a hunger for a wide variety of content, which has led to the creation of all these exciting new platforms. Now more than ever, I believe that if you have a great story, there are ways to get it done.”
In addition to Makeup X Breakup, Evans appeared in Power: Book Two and Law and Order: Organized Crime. He was last seen in BREAKZ on stage at the Nimbus Arts Center in Jersey City, New Jersey. STW Talent Agency and Stein Entertainment Group rep him.
Makeup X Breakup season two will stream on Allblk. Tv for eight weeks, with new episodes available every Thursday from July 6 through August 24
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