Copyright Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: Emmy winner Ray Romano has been tapped for a major recurring role opposite Kate Hudson on the upcoming second season of Netflix‘s basketball comedy series Running Point. He will play coach Norm Stinson, a basketball savant turned social recluse who will team up with Isla (Hudson) to re-discover his love for the game, and life. Romano replaces Robert Townsend who had originally cast in the role. The Norm character has been reconceived, with reshoots currently underway. Romano joins the series’ Season 2 main cast, which includes Hudson, Brenda Song, Drew Tarver, Scott MacArthur, Fabrizio Guido, Chet Hanks, Toby Sandeman, Jay Ellis, Max Greenfield, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Roberto Sanchez, Dane DiLiegro as well as Uche Agada and Justin Theroux who have been promoted from recurring to series regulars. In Running Point, when a scandal forces her brother to resign, Isla Gordon (Hudson) is appointed president of the Los Angeles Waves, one of the most storied professional basketball franchises, and her family business. Ambitious and often overlooked, Isla will have to prove to her skeptical brothers, the board, and the larger sports community that she was the right choice for the job. Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz and showrunner David Stassen are writers/executive producers, with Hudson, Howard Klein, Jeanie Buss and Linda Rambis also executive producing. The series comes from Mindy Kaling’s Kaling International in association with Warner Bros. Television, where Kaling is under an overall deal. This marks a return to Netflix for Romano who most recently starred in the streamer’s dark comedy-mystery series No Good Deed with Lisa Kudrow. He is known for his title role on the hit CBS comedy Everybody Loves Raymond, which earned him three Emmys as actor and producer, and for voicing Manny the mammoth in the Ice Age movies. Romano’s series credits also include Men of a Certain Age, Parenthood, Get Shorty, and Made for Love. In film, he wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the comedy-drama Somewhere in Queens. He is repped by LBI Entertainment, The Conversation Company and Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka.
