All American is an American sports drama television series created by April Blair which premiered on The CW on October 10, 2018 and features an ensemble cast starring Daniel Ezra in the lead role as well as Bre-Z, Greta Onieogou, Samantha Logan, Michael Evans Behling, Cody Christian, Karimah Westbrook, Monet Mazur, Taye Diggs, Jalyn Hall, Chelsea Tavares, Hunter Clowdus, Osy Ikhile, Alexis Chikaeze, Nathaniel Logan McIntyre and Antonio J. Bell.
All American is inspired by the life of professional American football player Spencer Paysinger and follows the lives of a group of people from both Crenshaw and Beverly Hills after teen Spencer James (Ezra), a rising star football player from Crenshaw whose dream is to make it to the NFL, is recruited by coach Billy Baker (Diggs) to play for his high school team in Beverly Hills.
The series was met with positive reviews from both critics and audiences, with praise being aimed in particular at the football sequences and performances of Ezra, Christian and Diggs. However, it initially got weak television ratings on its broadcast network, but was a sleeper hit when released on Netflix, which helped both to boost its linear ratings and prevent its cancellation.
The series ran for 132 episodes over eight seasons and concluded on September 28, 2026.
Premise When a rising high school American football player from South Los Angeles is recruited to play for Beverly Hills High, the wins, losses and struggles of two families from vastly different worlds – Crenshaw and Beverly Hills – begin to collide.
Cast and characters
Main Actor Character Seasons 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Daniel Ezra Spencer James colspan="6" colspan="2" Bre-Z Tamia "Coop" Cooper colspan="8" Greta Onieogou Layla Keating colspan="8" Samantha Logan Olivia Baker colspan="6" colspan="2" Michael Evans Behling Jordan Baker colspan="8" Cody Christian Asher Adams colspan="6" colspan="2" Karimah Westbrook Grace James colspan="6" Monet Mazur Laura Fine-Baker colspan="6" colspan="2" Taye Diggs Billy Baker colspan="5" Jalyn Hall Dillon James colspan="6" colspan="2" Chelsea Tavares Patience Robinson colspan="2" colspan="4" colspan="2" Hunter Clowdus JJ Parker colspan="3" colspan="2" colspan="3" Osy Ikhile Cassius Jeremy colspan="6" colspan="2" Ella Simone Tabu Amina Simms colspan="2" colspan="3" Alexis Chikaeze colspan="5" colspan="2" Nathaniel Logan McIntyre Kingston "KJ" Jeremy colspan="6" colspan="2" Antonio J. Bell Khalil Edwards colspan="5" colspan="2"
Daniel Ezra as Spencer James (seasons 1–6; special guest seasons 7–8), based on Spencer Paysinger, a star wide receiver. He also plays safety, kickoff returner and running back. He was the all-star football player of both South Crenshaw High School and Beverly Hills High School and then of Golden Angeles University. Since childhood, Spencer shoulders the responsibility of helping his community back in South Crenshaw, being a good leader for his football team, and taking care of his family and friends. This burden increasingly overwhelmed him and led to development of his savior complex. He always had a close bond with his mother Grace and little brother Dillon. In season 2, he patched up the strained relationship he had with his estranged father Corey right before the latter's sudden death. After he was shot in the shoulder by one of Tyrone's affiliates, he got surgery to remove the bullet so he could return to playing football, but the recovery was difficult. At his senior year State Championship game, he was named an All-American. In college, as his struggles to rise up the wide receiver's depth chart continued to lead to nowhere, he offered to switch to kicker and gunner. However, by freshman year midseason, he managed to play both as gunner and wide receiver. In season 6, he saw his dream of becoming an NFL pro player come true when he was drafted by the New York Bobcats while also graduating from college as a psychology major. Relationship-wise, he started dating Layla right after moving to Beverly Hills High, but they broke up at the beginning of season 3 because he realized that he was in love with Olivia. After confessing his feelings to Olivia, who reciprocated, the two entered a long-term relationship, which after overcoming some setbacks eventually grew to the point of culminating in their marriage at the end of season 6. The newlyweds then moved to New York together due to his commitment to the Bobcats. In season 7, Olivia found out she was pregnant with their first child, eventually turned out to be twins, who were born in the series finale, when the new parents also moved back to Los Angeles after he managed to be traded to the Los Angeles Robins, ultimately retiring from football after a few years of successful career in the NFL. Bre-Z as Tamia "Coop" Cooper, Spencer's best friend and Patience's long-time girlfriend. She attended South Crenshaw High School. While she tried to warn Shawn off the gang, she started to take the gang life more seriously after Shawn was killed off, restarting the chain of revenge killings between rival gangs that started with Shawn's brother, Brandon, the year before. Also, as she was a minor at the time, she could not take over the lease on Shawn's rental house, even if she was to be emancipated from her mother. When she moved back in after she helped with the arrest of Tyrone Moore, she reverted to being a songwriter and DJ. At the end of season 3, she was shot by Monique Moore after she found out the latter plan to avenge her brother's death. She managed to survive, but along with that came side effects regarding her mental health: this, along with being caught up in legal investigations regarding the shooting, distracted her from making music, which she ultimately quit for good. Due to the legal stuff she got involved with, however, she found herself passionate in law, which she eventually started to study after setting as her new goal to become a lawyer. At the end of season 6, she was accepted at law school, which she started attending at the beginning of season 7, all while mutually deciding with Patience to end their relationship for good after realizing that they had outgrown each other. Afterwards, she started a relationship with her law professor Breonna Strong and eventually managed to become an attorney in the series finale. Greta Onieogou as Layla Keating, a Beverly Hills High student and the daughter of JP, a very successful record producer, and Monica, a famous singer who died in a car accident when she was still a child. She is also best friends with Olivia since forever and, although their friendship faced several obstacles for various reasons, the two always managed to overcome their issues and patch things up. At the beginning of the series, she was Asher's girlfriend but she broke up with him in early season 1 and then started dating Spencer. In season 2, she decided to follow in her father's footsteps by starting her own record label, which she named ForMonica Records in honor of her late mother, and became Coop's producer. In the meantime, she also found out that she suffered from depression, likely inherited from Monica, who had the same condition before dying, leading her to put her relationship with Spencer on hold due to the need to focus on her recovery, but in season 3 she broke up with him for good after he confessed her he had realized that he was in love with Olivia. In season 4, she became Patience's producer after Coop decided to quit making music while the record label became increasingly successful, which led to her deciding not to go to college in order to focus on her career as a producer. In the meantime, she and Jordan grew closer and eventually developed feelings for each other, prompting them in season 5 to start a relationship which quickly became increasingly stronger to the point of culminating in their engagement at the end of the season. Still together and engaged, in season 6 the two focused on planning for their wedding as well as dealing with her resurfaced mental health problems and eventually got married once she was finally in a good place. In the meantime, she also ventured into hospitality, founding her own club and bar named Layla's. In the final season, she decided to sell her label while retaining its name in order to have the freedom to focus solely on her producing career as well as the family and home life she had come to value most and, in the series finale, she and Jordan had a daughter whom they named Monica in honor of her late mother. Samantha Logan as Olivia Baker (seasons 1–6; special guest seasons 7–8), Billy and Laura's daughter, Willy's granddaughter, and Jordan's twin sister. She is a recovering drug addict who got clean after a period she spent in rehab before the events of the series, despite facing a few relapses over the course of the seasons. She is best friends with Layla and, although their friendship faced several obstacles for various reasons, the two always managed to overcome their issues and patch things up. Olivia was also the first person Spencer met when he moved to Beverly Hills High and the two immediately formed a strong friendship which eventually evolved into a romantic relationship after they realized they were in love with each other in season 3. Before getting together with Spencer, she also dated Asher for a while. In season 2, she started a podcast called Liv the Truth with the goal of helping give the Black Community a voice about the discriminations they faced, also becoming President of the Black Student Caucus and starting Beverly Hills High's own Black Lives Matter movement for this purpose. In season 4, she decided to pursue a career in journalism by attending Golden Angeles University, the same college as Spencer and Jordan, and, by the end of season 6, she managed to become a successful author, albeit a novelist and not a journalist. Also, after facing some setbacks in their relationship, in season 6 she and Spencer managed to settle into an adult, stable and mature one, which culminated in their marriage at the end of the season. The newlyweds then moved to New York together due to Spencer having been drafted by the New York Bobcats. At the beginning of season 7, she discovered she was pregnant with her and Spencer's first child, eventually turned out to be twins, who were born in the series finale, when the new parents also moved back to Los Angeles after Spencer managed to be traded to the Los Angeles Robins.