Angela Lewis as Aunt Louie | Snowfall | FX

Angela Lewis

Aunt Louie

Angela Lewis plays Franklin's “Aunt Louie,” who had long been Franklin’s right hand helping him run his operation. Louie has a strong business mind of her own, and when the opportunity presented itself to fully break from Franklin’s operation and put herself in control of her future, Louie wasn’t afraid to push forward.

Career Highlights

Rising star Angela Lewis, has garnered many roles from some of the most illustrious off-Broadway productions to award-winning drama television series. Lewis will make her return as “Aunt Louie” on the sixth and final season of the FX series, Snowfall, co-created by the late award-winning director, John Singleton. The crime drama series is set against the infancy of the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles and tells how it affected the city as well as its culture. The series follows numerous characters who deal with the war zone that the epidemic ensues in this era of Los Angeles. Her role as “Aunt Louie,” a woman who started at the very bottom but used her cunning, connections and immense desire for a better life, to escape the hard knocks of South-Central LA, is set to showcase her artistic talent of acting.

Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Lewis credits her drive and success to her village of family and friends and the public school education she received. At the age of three, she desired to be an actress and soon became the entertainer of the family. Her very supportive parents provided her opportunities to sing in various choirs, as well as saxophone, ballet, tap, jazz and West African dance lessons, which molded her into a performer. To avoid the pitfalls of inner-city life, she opted to engross herself in her studies and extracurricular activities, which subsequently gave her intellectual growth and the perseverance she has today.

Lewis continued to develop as an artist by being involved in the Readers Theater & Performing Arts Guild in high school, under the tutelage of Tony Award® winning instructor, Ms. Marilyn McCormick. After attending a student trip to New York City with McCormick, Lewis was compelled to make the move to the city of dreams one day. The next stop, however, as mandated by her parents, was college. Lewis majored in theater at the University of Michigan and by her senior year, had gone from partial talent scholarships to a full ride. Lewis graduated from U-M with a bachelor’s degree in Theater Performance.

Upon graduating, she made the move to New York City to pursue her acting career. Her first major role in an Off-Broadway play, History of the Word, gained her an equity card, first agent and manager. During her tenure as a young, working actor (complete with a side hustle as a bartender and cocktail waitress) in most of New York's illustrious playhouses, she built relationships and established herself in the theater community's elite circle of theater artists. She also quickly began working as a voiceover and commercial talent for brands such as Verizon, AT&T Wireless and McDonalds to name a few.

In 2011, Lewis landed a role in La Jolla Playhouse's production of Milk Like Sugar. The play became the winner of the 2012 Obie Award for Playwriting and 2011 San Diego Critics Circle Craig Noel Award for Outstanding New Play. It was there that she met co-actor and husband-to-be, J. Mallory McCree. Life and career really began to flourish, and she gained her first television role on the SHOWTIME critically acclaimed drama series, The Big C opposite Laura Linney. It was a small appearance, but it opened the door to a growing on-camera career, including a long goal of a guest star role on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

After two and half years of dating, Lewis and J. Mallory married in August of 2014 in their hometown Detroit, Michigan. The happy newlyweds then packed their stuff and moved to Los Angeles to further pursue film and television goals. Out the gate, Lewis booked back-to-back guest starring roles on TNT's The Last Ship and CBS' Code Black before landing the series regular role in Snowfall.

Currently residing in Los Angeles with her husband and toddler, Lewis spends her time balancing work, life-partnership, motherhood and self-care. She stays healthy by practicing meditation, yoga, strength training and dance classes. She is co-founder of BlüRemedi Media, a company that creates, develops and produces fresh, high caliber and dynamic content, redefining cultural norms by illuminating the vast diversity within diversity. Committed to giving back and the uplifting of black (and brown) people, Lewis has also co-founded the non-profit Moon Child Collaborative, which houses its first initiative, Lewis’s own labor of love – Birth Village. Since becoming a mother to her first child in 2019, Lewis has been inspired to use her platform for the annihilation of the black Maternal Health crisis by raising awareness, educating, advocating and providing access to resources for black (and of color) women, families and workers in the birth space. Lewis’s desire is to live fully in her power by alchemizing her passion for exploring humanity through the arts, standing in the fullness of the light and love that is her core, carving out a legacy for herself as an actress, writer, producer (and whatever is to come) and glowing in the fullness of her womanhood, through which her family grows and thrives, and the world becomes a better place.

Lewis is Pesca-vegan (no dairy or eggs, but allows seafood), is enjoying being a student of life, wants the world to normalize breastfeeding and loves to dabble in arts and crafts. You can follow Birth Village on Instagram @birthvillage.org and Angela at @luvangelalewis on Twitter & Instagram and at www.luvangelalewis.com.

Isaiah John

as Leon Simmons

Leon Simmons is Franklin’s life-long friend who has been there through it all.