Uzo Aduba to star in Netflix opioid drama

Triple Emmy-winning Nigerian-American actress Uzo Aduba (Orange Is the New Black, Mrs America) is set to star in new Netflix drama Painkiller, about the opioid crisis in the US.

The six-part limited series will explore the origins and aftermath of the epidemic while focusing on real-life billionaire family the Sacklers and their New York-based  company Purdue Pharma.

It will highlight the stories of the perpetrators, victims and truth-seekers whose lives were forever altered by the invention of semi-synthetic opioid painkiller OxyContin.

The series will also serve as an examination of crime, accountability and the systems that have repeatedly failed hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Aduba will play the investigator leading the case against Purdue. The cast also includes Matthew Broderick, Sam Anderson, Taylor Kitsch, Tyler Ritter and Dina Shihabi. Painkiller will drop on Netflix on August 10.

Aduba is also set to star in The Residence, the new series from Grey’s Anatomy creator and showrunner Shonda Rhimes, also for Netflix.

Inspired by the book The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House by Kate Andersen Brower, the series centres on a murder scandal involving staff at the White House.