Taylor Schilling is going from the prison to the morgue.
The “Orange Is the New Black” alum has signed on to star in “What the Dead Know,” a drama pilot in the works at NBC, according to Deadline. Based on former New York City medical examiner Barbara Butcher’s memoir, “What the Dead Know” will see Schilling play death investigator Ava Ledger, described as “highly intelligent,” “hypervigilant,” and “really good with dead bodies. It’s the living that give her trouble.” Ava works with the NYPD to crack their toughest cases.
Beth Rinehart (“FBI: Most Wanted”) will pen the pilot, which was ordered by NBC in January. Dick Wolf, of “Law & Order” and #OneChicago fame, will serve as an executive producer.
Schilling is best known for playing inmate Piper Chapman on the Netflix prison dramedy “Orange Is the New Black,” earning an Emmy nomination for best lead actress in a drama in 2014. Her other TV credits include “Dear Edward,” “Pam & Tommy,” “Poker Face,” and “Mercy.”
In other casting news…
* The BBC has revealed its cast for the upcoming spy drama “Honey,” which Deadline reports is actually a prequel to the hit thriller “Killing Eve,” though that’s yet to be officially confirmed. Ann Skelly (“The Sandman”) stars as Martha Schmitt, a young MI6 agent who goes deep undercover in 1980s Berlin. (“Killing Eve” fans may remember a Season 4 flashback episode that saw Fiona Shaw’s MI6 agent Carolyn Martens in Berlin around the same time period.) The “Honey” cast also includes Nate Mann (“Masters of the Air”), Jannis Niewöhner (“Napoleon”), and Rory Kinnear (“The Diplomat”). No U.S. network or premiere date has been announced.
* The CBS comedy pilot “Regency” has added Mia Challis (“Outer Banks”) and Hayley Griffith (“Kinda Pregnant”) to its cast, according to Variety. The pilot starring Rhys Darby is described as “a historical spin on the classic multi-cam family sitcom, centered around the upper-middle class Tillbrooks as they navigate life, love, and scandal in 19th Century England.”
* An-Li Bogan (“Love Life”) has joined the cast of the untitled NBC drama pilot led by Emily Deschanel, TVLine has learned. Bogan will play Natalie Washington, who “lives with hyperthymesia, a rare condition that allows her to remember every moment of every day of her life with perfect clarity. This extraordinary gift makes her an unparalleled investigative asset: details others forget, she recalls instantly; patterns others miss, she sees immediately.”