Actor, professional boxer and Indigenous rights advocate Kali Reis is set to star opposite Jodie Foster in True Detective: Night Country. With both leads in place, Season 4 of the crime thriller anthology series has received a formal greenlight by HBO.
Reis recently burst into the Hollywood scene with her acting debut in the indie film Catch the Fair One, on which she also helped develop the story with director Josef Kubota Wladyka. Her performance earned her a special Jury Mention for Best Actress at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, where the film won the Audience Award, as well as a 2022 Indie Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead. It also got the attention of True Detective producers. Reis was identified as the choice for the co-lead opposite Foster weeks ago. It took awhile for her deal to get done as insurance and other issues had to be worked out in light of Reis’ boxing career. She has no upcoming fights scheduled at this time.
In True Detective: Night Country, from writer/director/showrunner Issa López, when the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the six men that operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers (Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Reis) will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves, and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.
López and Foster serve as executive producers alongside Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak through Pastel. Alan Page Arriaga is a writer/executive producer. Anonymous Content, Mari Jo Winkler, Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Cary Joji Fukunaga, and Nic Pizzolatto also executive produce. The new season will be filmed in Iceland.
“We are tremendously excited to return to the True Detective franchise and to be working with the multi-talented Issa López, whose singular vision for her ‘Night Country’ installment will be beautifully realized with Jodie Foster and Kali Reis in the starring roles,” said Francesca Orsi, EVP, HBO Programming.
Reis is boxing’s first Indigenous American female world champion. Coincidently, she made her TV debut on HBO in 2018 in the network’s HBO Boxing franchise. Reis recently wrapped principal photography on her second movie, Black Flies, opposite Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan.
She is a motivational speaker and vocal supporter of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls movement, and teaches young Native women how to fight, both physically and vocally, against the targeting of Native youth. Reis is repped by ICM Partners, Authentic Talent & Literary Management.