Dwayne Johnson’s NBC Comedy "Young Rock" Sets Cast
by Denise Petski
September 30, 2020


Dwayne Johnson has revealed the cast for "Young Rock", his upcoming NBC comedy series inspired by his life. The project comes from Johnson and "Fresh Off the Boat" creator/executive producer Nahnatchka Khan. Production is expected to start soon in Australia.

"Young Rock" will chronicle Johnson’s formative years, with the actor and ex-WWE star set to appear in each episode. It received a straight-to-series order in January. Johnson announced the cast Wednesday with photos on Instagram.




Bradley Constant will portray Johnson at age 15, and Marco Polo star Uli Latukefu will play him from the ages of 18-20, when he’s recruited to play football at the University of Miami. Adrian Groulx plays Johnson at age 10.

Stacey Leilua has been cast as Johnson’s mother, Ata Johnson, and his late father will be played by Joseph Lee Anderson. Ana Tuisila will play Johnson’s grandmother, Lia Maivia.

https://deadline.com/2020/09/young-rock-dwayne-johnson-nbc-comedy-sets-cast-1234588665/

Dwayne Johnson's Young Rock gets an NBC Macy's Thanksgiving Day spoof balloon promo (https://people.com/tv/dwayne-johnson-macys-thanksgiving-parade-balloon-float-1990-fanny-pack/)

Check out Johnson's famous fanny pack photo as a parade balloon.

How will Young Rock handle having three actors playing Dwayne Johnson if the show is a success? (https://www.thewrap.com/how-young-rock-will-handle-3-actors-playing-dwayne-johnson-at-different-ages-as-they-grow-up/)

On the NBC comedy, Adrian Groulx plays 10-year-old “Dewey” Johnson, Bradley Constant portrays Johnson at age 15 and Uli Latukefu is Johnson as a student at the University of Miami. How will Young Rock deal with each actor aging if the show succeeds and has a long run? “Like Dwayne alluded to, his life is so big and there are so many stories to tell that I imagine there’s even a season pre-Adrian,” showrunner Nahnatchka Khan said at the TV press tour. “There’s more seasons to tell in Hawaii. There’s a lot of places we can jump to in Dwayne’s big book of life. So once we determine these next stories and these next timelines we want to tell, I think that’s going to be our plan moving forward.” Meanwhile, Johnson says of the different timelines: “Let’s not take the easy route (https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/young-rock-dwayne-johnson-presidential-run-childhood-sitcom-1234892805/). We use these terms ‘wild’ and ‘crazy’ and those are great sizzle words that we use as we promote this thing, but it was incredibly complicated and it was incredibly tough growing up. We specifically went with these timelines in my life that were very defining times.” ALSO: Watch Young Rock's official trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMG9hfaBsdM).

Dwayne Johnson will reteam with his Young Rock co-star Uli Latukefu in the DC movie Black Adam (https://deadline.com/2021/04/black-adam-uli-latukefu-dwayne-johnson-young-rock-star-1234746794/)

Latukefu, who plays the eldest of three young Dwayne Johnson characters, will join Johnson on the big screen in a role that is being kept under wraps.