Raising Kanan’s MeKai Curtis Reveals How He Landed The Role Of Kanan & His First Inkling Of Power Series
Power Book III: Raising Kanan’s MeKai Curtis was the latest guest on The Crew Has It Podcast with Michael Rainey Jr & Gianni Paolo. They began the episode by Curtis sharing that they wrapped filming season two of Raisin Kanan in February 2022.
Since they wrapped Curtis has been auditioning for other projects and will be producing a project with his brother, and pitching his own projects. He was then asked if he knew when season 2 of Raising Kanan will drop.
“Bro, I still don’t know… People swear I’m lying. They don’t tell us anything,” Said Curtis.
So, what was Mekai Curtis introduction to the Power Series?
“My first inkling of Power came from my father. My whole family was addicted to the show before, so my mother, father, and aunts would literally watch the show and then discuss it. I watched it in passing one day and randomly when I sat down and thought this was actually good. This is crazy!” Curtis shared.
Even when I was doing my audition for Kanan, I watched you [Michael Rainey Jr] and Naturi [Naughton]. I was like, damn that would be cool to be on Power. And about a week later, my team was like, we have this audition for Power. At that point, I did not know they were doing spinoffs yet. It was like season five, season six. So, it was like you were auditioning for Power during my audition. I was like, bet. I thought I would get shot at the e3nd of the episode I didn’t care. I was just so hyped.”
Did he know that he was auditioning for Kanan?
“No, I said Power, and my character’s name was like Terrell at the time. It was codenamed as s***! It was not the real scene. I had no idea that I was Kanan. The first time I met Vicky Thomas, who cast me and Patina [Miller]. The second time I went in, I met Sascha Penn, Courtney, Shana Stein, and Bart Wenrich everybody was in that room that day… That was in LA and Rob Hardy was on Skype that day. I still didn’t know that it was Kanan, it was still Terrell.
Then they called and said that basically, what you have been auditioning for is the third installment of Power Raisin Kanan. You have been auditioning for Kanan, and we want you to play Kanan. You will fly to New York sometime this week with someone that will play your mother bye.”
Raising Kanan season two is slated to be released in the Summer of 2022.
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