Isaiah Paul Johnson, Sr.

Arijuana Gosnell will play Dess, Zeke's mom, who is a stylist at Clips and Snips. 

She is caring, but stern. She is a born-again Christian, but she is not flamboyant like many Black Christian moms on TV and in movies. Her personality is more grounded, resembling Jo-Marie Payton when she played Harriet Winslow of “Family Matters.”

Dess is unassumingly athletic, especially at basketball. She might have gone pro, but there was no WNBA then... Also, her strict parents objected to the short shorts. 

We'll likely cast three actors for Mo, at ages 9, 13, and 16.

Zeke was 15 when Keri and Mo were born. The twins are nine when he meets Mimi. They're both extremely intelligent and highly competitive with each other, but Keri prefers to be the class ‎clown, which drives Mo crazy!

Mo had the opportunity to skip first grade, but Mama and Dad refused, so Keri wouldn't feel left behind. They didn't know Mo accidentally overheard the conversation.  Mo buries his frustrations and then finds his calling in entomology. His athletic mechanic dad finds his "digging in the dirt" disturbing, but doesn't care to understand it.