All of the best TV romances need an amazing pair of actors at their center. In Forever, Netflix’s reimagined adaptation of Judy Blume’s beloved 1975 book, Lovie Simone and Michael Cooper Jr. are the rising stars bringing creator Mara Brock Akil’s vision to life. The eight-episode series follows the love story of Justin Edwards (Cooper) and Keisha Clarke (Simone), two L.A. teens who fall in love while dealing with the pressures and challenges of coming of age in 2018, when the show is set.
With Forever, 26-year-old actress Simone gives a stellar performance in her first lead television role. Even before the Netflix romance’s May 8 premiere, the rising star began drawing awards acclaim for the breakout role. Below, read on to learn more about Lovie Simone, including where to watch her prior shows and movies, and why she thinks Forever could return for more episodes. Warning: Spoilers for the Forever finale ahead.
Lovie Simone’s childhood idol was Raven-Symoné.
Lovie Simone Oppong, 26, was born in the Bronx in November 1998 and grew up in nearby Orange County, New York. After becoming interested in acting while growing up with the Disney Channel, the Ghanaian-American began her professional career at age 9, eventually booking commercial and voiceover roles. Over a decade later, her role in the teen series Forever seems full-circle for the former Disney fan.
“I definitely wanted to do the Disney wand like Raven-Symoné,” she recently told Elle of her childhood dream. “I didn’t know if it was going to be because of a show or a one-off movie, but I really wanted to be on Disney. And now, I don’t really know what I want to do. I don’t know until it comes across my desk and I say, “Whoa. I really want to be a part of this, like Forever.”
Before ‘Forever,’ Lovie Simone was known for her roles in ‘Greenleaf’ and ‘Selah and the Spades.’
Simone found her first breakout role in 2016 in the OWN church drama Greenleaf. She played Zora, a granddaughter of the titular megachurch empire known for pushing the boundaries of church norms. Originally cast as a recurring cast member, Simone was quickly upped to a series regular and appeared in every episode.
Simone has also made a name for herself as a Sundance Film Festival regular, with films including 2018’s Monster and 2019’s Share and Selah and the Spades. The latter, now available to stream on Prime Video, is a cult-favorite movie in which the actress stars as Selah Summers, a senior at an elite boarding school who leads a drug-dealing operation among the students.
“I’ve always been intentional with everything that I’ve chosen,” she told Teen Vogue in a 2020 interview. “I do feel like I’m just attracted to quality, and I’m attracted to storylines that are very complex, which is why I feel like I would play in almost every kind of drama there is in the film industry.”
Some of Simone’s recent projects include the 2020 remake of The Craft, the first season of Starz’s Power Book III: Raising Kanan, the 2022 period film The Walk, and Apple TV+’s 2024 historical series Manhunt.
Lovie Simone (center) with co-stars Celeste O’Connor (left) and Jharrel Jerome (right) in Tayarisha Poe’s Selah and the Spades.
(Image credit: Amazon Studios)
Lovie Simone has a twin sister who is also an entertainer.
Lovie Simone comes from a big family; born to a Ghanaian father and an African-American mother, Lovie has a twin sister and two younger siblings, a brother and a sister. Of the four kids, Lovie isn’t the only entertainer in her family. Her twin sister is an R&B artist under the stage name Reiyo The Giant.
“Reiyo, the 10-foot genie from the Bronx, spellbinds their listeners with a tone like honey and melodies full of the blues,” reads the musician’s Spotify bio. “The unapologetically Black and Queer storyteller, Reiyo, uses their soulful voice and unbridled passion to sing tales of love and desperation. Drawing inspiration from Nina Simone, Sade, Erykah Badu, and Billie Holiday, Reiyo’s sound is deeply rooted in the spirit of Black womanhood.”
Simone doesn’t think that the ‘Forever’ finale is the end of the love story.
Throughout Forever‘s press run, Simone has gushed about her experience playing Keisha in the Netflix series. Speaking with SFGate, she raved about creator Mara Brock Akil’s writing, and how Keisha has her own arc and character growth in addition to the central love story.
“It was like, ‘Wow, I am the love interest, and I have a story to tell while being the love,'” she told the outlet. “It’s really nice to not just be the girlfriend.”
She also spoke on her love for her character with Elle, telling the outlet that she “needed” to play the “complex” teen.
“I like any character who’s misunderstood. And as an actress, I like being able to portray a range of different emotions on screen,” she explained. “It’s really about experiencing different sides of humanity. In Keisha, I saw a girl who was going through so much as a teenager, and she also wants to be in love. And she’s very Scorpio-coded. She’s emotional and in her head all the time.”
Simone doesn’t think that the Forever finale is the end of Justin and Keisha’s (seen above) love story.
(Image credit: Netflix)
Even though Forever ends with a bittersweet breakup between Keisha and Justin, Simone has been clear that she doesn’t think the show’s finale marks the ultimate end of the couple. “I think this is the end of a chapter with this version of them. I don’t want them to break up. I’m Team Justin and Keisha,” she told Variety.
She added, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, that she can see the pair getting back together after doing some growing up apart.
“I love that you get to see some form of closure,” she told the outlet. “Because a lot of times with breakups, there’s not much conversation around the ending. Endings can be beautiful. Endings can be beginnings. I do see Keisha and Justin reconnecting. I don’t know when or for what. They need to be themselves separately. That’s important to see too, that you can grow outside of each other.”