Bellamy Young has signed on to star in The Night Stalker, an upcoming thriller from writer-director Megan Griffiths about the serial killer Richard Ramirez. Lou Diamond Phillips is set to play Ramirez, with Young as a defense attorney who was 15 years old and living in Los Angeles at the time of Ramirez’s 1985 killing spree. The film will mix parts of Ramirez’s true horrific story with a fictional narrative centered on a prison interview between an aging Ramirez and Young’s character.
Young is best known for her scene-stealing performance as First Lady Of The United States Mellie Grant on the Shonda Rhimes powerhouse Scandal. She is also known her her excessive use of emojis on Twitter. (This casting news certainly warrants a gasping monkey or two.)
Griffiths is excited about Young boarding the project, as well as how many women will be involved in the making of The Night Stalker: “In addition to our amazing leading lady, I also could not be more thrilled about collaborating with so many female heads of department,” Griffiths says. “I know first hand how underrepresented women are on a typical film set, which has no correlation with the talent and drive of the women I have had the pleasure to work with. Things are changing, and I am proud to be a part of the ongoing shifting of paradigms.”