Nellie Andreeva

Rochelle Aytes (ABC’s The Forgotten) and up-and-comer Jes Macallan have landed two of the four leads in Mistresses, ABC’s drama recently greenlighted straight to series for a summer 2013 launch. The soap, written by KJ Steinberg, based on the British format, is described as a provocative thrilling drama that finds four women, two of them played by Aytes and Macallan, with scandalous romantic lives, caught in storms of excitement and self-discovery, secrecy and betrayal, and at the mercy of the complex relationships they’ve created. Aytes, repped by Innovative and Zero Gravity Management, will play April, a recent widow raising two daughters and running a high-end linen shop on Robertson Boulevard. Coincidentally, Aytes also played one of the 4 leads in the previous U.S. Mistresses adaptation, a 2009 Lifetime pilot penned by Melissa Carter. In her first series regular role, Macallan, repped by Luber Roklin, Momentum and attorney Lev Ginsburg, will play Josslyn, the youngest of the quartet of close friends, a real estate broker, and an unapologetically sensual woman. Cherie Nowlan, repped by UTA and Industry, is set to direct the pilot for the ABC Studios series, executive produced by Steinberg, Bob Sertner, Douglas Rae and Rina Mimoun.

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