Uzo Aduba to Star as Gay Southern Sheriff in New CBS Drama

Has Uzo Aduba found her next Emmy-winning role?

The three-time Emmy winner is set to star in and executive produce Low Country, a new drama from Robert and Michelle King, the creators of The Good Wife. In the show, Aduba will play a gay deputy sheriff working deep in the South.

According to Deadline, "Low Country stars Aduba as Shirley Johnson, the least likely deputy sheriff in South Carolina's low country. Black and openly gay in a white southern stronghold, Shirley has been underestimated her whole life until now, when she takes on the wealthy white crime family that has kept everyone in the grip of fear."

The show is part of a multi-year producing deal Aduba has signed with CBS Studios. In addition to producing and starring in Low Country, Aduba will also develop and produce other projects for CBS.

Along with Aduba and the Kings, the show is being executive produced and written by Dewayne Jones, who has worked on Your Honor and Evil with the Kings previously. Liz Glotzer of CBS Studios-based King Size Prods also will be producing.

Aduba won two Emmys and two individual Screen Actor's Guild Awards for her role as Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren in Netflix's women's prison dramady Orange is the New Black. While Aduba has never publicly identified as queer, she cultivated a legion of LGBTQ+ fans through the role as Suzanne was queer. The actress won a third Emmy for playing Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to US Congress, in the limited series Mrs. America.

Apart from Low Country and other projects under the CBS deal, Aduba is the lead of HBO's new upcoming reboot of In Treatment, and will star with Anne Hathaway, Morgan Freeman, and Helen Mirren in Amazon Studios' anthology series Solos.

RELATED: Bella Ramsey is Lesbian Icon Ellie in HBO's 'The Last of Us' Series