In “Phenomenal Woman,” Maya Angelou’s poem heard round the world, she says the secret to her alluring success and innovative nature is pulled from a well deep within her. “Phenomenal woman, that’s me!” echoes from the mighty river of Angelou’s words to the arch of Aleshea Harris’s trailblazing career. The Pulitzer Prize–finalist playwright paints rich, textured worlds that take on the multifaceted inheritance of being Black with a daring acuity. And now Harris is taking an unprecedented path in Hollywood as a Black woman: directing and writing a film adaption of her own stage play. Like Angelou, Julie Dash, and a chorus of Black women directors before her, Harris is in command of her bold world. The difference between Harris’s journey and the ancestry that illuminates her path? Hollywood is ready for her.
Is God Is (2026) — Harris’ brainchild premiering May 15 — chronicles two sisters (stage darling Kara Young in her first starring film role and the dynamic Mallori Johnson) on an all-consuming quest for revenge as they confront the towering ghosts in their path and lineage. Their quest is not complete without Hollywood mainstays — Vivica A. Fox, Sterling K. Brown, Janelle Monáe, and Erika Alexander — aiding the journey. Adapted from Harris’s stage play of the same name, produced by Tessa Thompson and Janicza Bravo, the film is a cathartic work of trust for those both behind the camera and in front of it. Harris’s moment of ingenuity and taste, as she tells The Cut, is guided by her own intuition.
