A black family portrayed in an animated show voiced by an all-black cast is not something you come across often.
While Hollywood hasn’t always gotten it right when it comes to representation in media, significant improvements have been made to accurately depict different cultures, ethnicities, genders and sexualities in a positive light.
So, when shows like Netflix’s newest series My Dad The Bounty Hunter comes along, it’s certainly a breath of fresh air and a sharp pivot from the norm.
Insert it’s hilarious yet endearing family dynamic, a star-studded cast and evil celestial antagonists popping up in every galaxy, and you get a visually pleasing, action-packed 8-episode show for the whole family to enjoy.
Laz Alonso (Amazon Prime’s The Boys) and Yvonne Orji ( HBO’s Insecure) star as Terry and Tess, two divorcees that are just trying to raise their kids, Lisa and Sean, the best that they can while living in separate households.
Lisa is voiced by Netflix’s Stranger Things breakout star Priah Ferguson, the older sister to her kid brother Sean, voiced by ABC’s Home Economic’s Jecobi Swain.
When the kids are eager to accompany their dad at work they suddenly realize that he’s not who they thought he was. After sneaking in to the trunk of his car (which just so happens to be in a gigantic spaceship, no biggie) they arrive in space where they learn their dad is actually an Alien Bounty Hunter.
Space isn’t exactly a quick drive around the corner from Earth but the kids are in no hurry to go home and rightfully so. How often does the average person get a chance to go to space, right?
But after a job gone wrong, Terry, Lisa and Sean quickly become the targets of some serious intergalactic villains. Together, they must fight to save the cosmos and make it back home alive.
We sat down with the cast as well as co-creators Everett Downing and Patrick Harpin, who happen to have a long history of working on animation projects like Boss Baby, The Emoji Movie and Cartoon Network series Clarence.
See what they had to say about what they’ve learned from their characters, representation in the animation industry, the story behind the show’s creation and what their bounty hunter names would be in real life.