Yahoo Lifestyle “Found ”introduces Gabi Mosely, TV's latest justice-seeking maverick
Steve Swisher/NBC Shanola Hampton on 'Found'
If you or a loved one ever goes missing, you'll want Gabi Mosely (Shanola Hampton) on the case.
NBC drama Found follows Gabi and her team as they work to find missing people that are overlooked by the system. Using their array of skills, Mosely and Associates set the law aside in order to help their clients find missing loved ones. Often clashing with the authorities and manipulating the media to her whim, Gabi is a formidable opponent, and one who is unapologetic about her calling.
Her determination comes from past trauma. When she was kidnapped as a teenager, she had to free herself. "Some people call her a vigilante because she's not going to be tied down by laws and rules. Her job is not complete until they've been returned to their loved ones. It's a calling that she takes very seriously and permeates her entire life," creator Nkechi Okoro Carroll explains. We will see glimpses of her time as a captive (Azaria Carter plays a teenage Gabi) with her kidnapper, Sir, played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar in a role unlike anything he's done before. "The time she spent with Sir has shaped who she is today," Carroll explains.
Steve Swisher/NBC 'Found'
Mosely's team does important work, but you will not hear their leader call herself a hero. "[Gabi] is fully aware of all her flaws more than anyone else, even her team," Carroll says. "Everyone for the most part knows each other's secrets, although they don't know the extent of Gabi's." Might that include the fact that Gabi is keeping her kidnapper locked up in her basement for insight on her cases?
Secrets aside, Gabi has formed a strong team, some of whom embody Gabi's by-any-means-necessary approach while others are concerned with staying on the right side of the law. Lacey (Gabrielle Walsh) is a law student dedicated to Gabi's mission, agoraphobic tech genius Zeke (Arlen Escarpeta) uses his family money to bankroll the operation, Dhan (Karan Oberoi) is the muscle of the team who works hard to keep his own demons at bay, and Margaret (Kelli Williams) is the mother of the group and who Carroll calls "the heart" of Gabi's family. "Episode 3 in particular had me in the fetal position in the editing room watching Kelli work," she teases.
Rounding out the cast is Mark Trent (Brett Dalton), an officer drawn to Gabi both professionally and personally. "Gabi's mission is bringing the person home and what happens to the bad guy, if they don't make it through the exchange, is secondary," Carroll says about Gabi's approach. Not only is Mark infatuated with Gabi, but he also believes in her mission while also wanting her to keep things legal so criminals can be convicted.
Matt Miller/NBC Mark-Paul Gosselaar on 'Found'
Found is a crime drama, but Carroll doesn't see it as a procedural. "There's a case-of-the-week, but there's no formula to the cases because there's no telling whether Gabi will or won't solve the cases," she says. "Even more so, the lives of our main characters drive so much of the story and the complicated nature of how they are connected play a big role in the story." The cases come from walk-ins — like the young boy who comes into their office for help finding his foster sister in the pilot — referrals, and on occasion, Gabi inserts herself when she hears about a situation that she knows she can assist with.
Bringing this story to life is important to Carroll's mission as a storyteller. "I truly believe that my keyboard is my weapon that helps me contribute to trying to make the world a better place," she shares. The idea for Found was born out of frustration about the lack of attention missing people of color receive from mainstream media and how viral posts from within the community are how these stories get to people.
Carroll remembers a story almost a decade ago about 14 missing Black and brown girls in Washington D.C. "The community felt like they weren't being heard," she recalls about their disappearance. Keeping tabs on the case and ones like it, including the rate at which indigenous women have gone missing, helped the show take shape. "I was trying to understand from a human perspective and a parent perspective how this could be happening and isn't being addressed on a wider scale," she explains.
Found premieres Tuesday, Oct. 3, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
Make sure to check out EW's Fall TV Preview cover story on Gen V — as well as all of our 2023 Fall TV Preview content, releasing through Sept. 21.
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