'Our Kind of People' was a hair-icon full-circle moment for Yaya DaCosta

Yaya DaCosta knew that she was destined to get the leading role on the new CTV drama, Our Kind of People. When the former Chicago Med star read the script for the new Lee Daniels-produced series (based on the book by Lawrence Otis Graham), it was actually a full-circle moment for the 38-year-old.

The series is based on a single mother who sets out to reclaim her name while making an impact with her revolutionary haircare line for Black women, which highlights natural locks in all their beauty. It all takes place in the aspirational world of Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, where the rich and powerful Black elite come to play.

For DaCosta, the role of Angela Vaughn was appealing first and foremost because she had worked with Daniels before in The Butler, and was excited for the opportunity to do so again. But it was the way the script itself tackled Black hair that truly made DaCosta feel this role in her bones.

Knowing it was meant to be

“Let me tell you, my first introduction to America on TV was a while ago, and I became known after that as, like, a natural hair icon or whatever even though I didn't really speak about it,”  DaCosta revealed during a Television Critics Association panel for the show.

“I never created a YouTube channel. People were always in my DMs. There has been this kind of underground network of natural hair care,” she continued. “To see the movement blossom and then to come into 2021 and be offered a part like this felt like everything just coming full circle and the world being ready finally, when they weren't before.”

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DaCosta recalled how she used to walk around the malls in Los Angeles and get laughed at for her “frohawk” by women who looked like her but who had straight hair. Now, she says those days are in the rearview mirror and it’s because of shows like this, which celebrate Black women’s hair for its natural beauty.

“We've evolved into this space where any choice that we make for ourselves is okay,” she continued. “It should be celebrated. And that's why we have the CROWN Act happening, it literally just gives us, women with textured hair, permission to be as we are, to not get kicked out of school, to not be forced to cut our locks off in a corporate environment, all of that.”

Passing it on to the next generation

Debbi Morgan, who stars in the show as a character known as Aunt Piggy, once played DaCosta’s mom on All My Children. She also spoke about how Our Kind of People changes the conversation on-screen and off about Black women’s hair and how it fosters much-needed change.

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“When I read this script and saw how important this part of our culture was going to be to this show, I was just ecstatic,” she said. “This is so relevant today because so many women of colour are expressing their appreciation in their natural hair, which at one time was just so taboo.”

For this role, Morgan was able to grow locks, which is something she’d been wanting to do for years but couldn’t in case she had to wear a wig for a part. But when this came along, she straight-up told the producers that she wanted locks, and she got a resounding “great!”

“I just love it. This topic has never been explored on TV before,” Morgan added.

For DaCosta, the show is an opportunity to take that conversation to the next level with viewers, but to also pave the way for the next generation—including her own on-screen daughter, Alana Bright, on this show.

“To take it to the next level and be on a show where we are actually vulnerable and real and relinquishing the pressure to be coiffed in a way to fit in, I mean, I want to pass it on,” she said.

The actor referred to a scene the duo shot where she’s discussing hair with Bright’s character, sitting her down and parting it and doing it up.

“I came up to her before we shot the scene, like, ‘Alana, are you okay with this? How real do you want to get?’ And her bravery and her vulnerability… we've been doing things on this show that you have never seen.”

Watch Our Kind of People Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.