50 Fun Facts About All American

Which Birmingham-born English actor plays football star Spencer James in All American?

Daniel Ezra made his American debut in the role, carrying a football everywhere and spending time in South Central Los Angeles to perfect the accent. He worked without an accent coach.

All American, the football drama set between Crenshaw and Beverly Hills, aired on which network?

The CW premiered the drama in October 2018 and aired all 132 episodes, ending with the series finale in September 2026.

All American drew weak TV ratings before becoming a sleeper hit on which streaming service?

Netflix turned the drama into a sleeper hit, and the streaming audience lifted its broadcast ratings and helped save it from cancellation.

In season 5 of All American, coach Billy Baker dies while rescuing a player after which disaster?

A bus crash puts the South Crenshaw team in danger, and Billy dies saving one of his players. His death leaves both the Beverly Hills and Crenshaw communities in despair.

Spencer James is recruited to Beverly Hills High in All American as a star at which position?

Wide receiver is his star role, though he started out as a running back, and at college he also plays as a gunner on special teams.

Which actor, known for the Broadway musical Rent, plays head coach Billy Baker in All American?

Taye Diggs was the first actor cast, in February 2018, and stayed as a regular for five seasons before returning for guest appearances.

Which position does coach's son Jordan Baker play for Beverly Hills High in All American?

Quarterback is his job, though teammate JJ Parker briefly takes over as the starter in season 3 while Jordan is out injured.

Jordan Baker and Simone Hicks elope in which city in All American before annulling the marriage?

Las Vegas hosts the spur-of-the-moment wedding, but the pair soon decide the marriage was a mistake, get an annulment and simply carry on dating.

Which Crenshaw rapper, killed outside his own store, is mourned in the All American season 2 premiere?

Nipsey Hussle is honoured with a candlelight vigil and a mural painted by his own tattoo artist. He had been due to appear in the season 1 finale before a scheduling clash.

Demetrius Shipp Jr., All American's gang leader Tyrone Moore, starred as which rapper in a biopic?

Tupac Shakur was a role he won through a strong resemblance, despite never having aspired to act. A season 1 episode of the series is also titled All Eyez on Me, like the film.

Which All American character is accepted into a Boston school of the arts in season 6?

Dillon James, the artistic younger brother of Spencer, wins a place at the Boston Benwood School of Arts and moves east to attend after six seasons in the main cast.

Where had All American's Olivia Baker recently spent time when the story begins?

Rehab helped her get clean from drug addiction before the story starts, though she relapses more than once over the seasons. In season 4 she sponsors a girl named Jenn.

In All American, Layla Keating names her record label after which late relative?

Her mother Monica, who died in a car accident, gives ForMonica Records its name. Layla later finds she shares the depression Monica lived with.

After the NFL draft in All American season 6, Spencer James moves with Olivia Baker to which city?

New York is home to the fictional Bobcats, who draft him in the episode Victory Lap. Olivia joins him there after their wedding at the end of the season.

Which diagnosis ends the football playing days of Asher Adams in All American?

A heart condition called cardiomyopathy stops him just after he wins a full athletic scholarship, so he turns to coaching instead.

Spencer James, Jordan Baker and Olivia Baker all enrol at which college in All American?

Golden Angeles University offers Jordan a scholarship and Olivia a route into journalism, while Spencer has to fight his way up the depth chart there as a freshman.

How are All American classmates Jordan Baker and Olivia Baker, both raised by coach Billy Baker, related?

Twin brother and sister they may be, but they could hardly differ more: Jordan follows his father Billy into football while Olivia turns to activism and writing.

After giving up music in All American, Tamia "Coop" Cooper sets her sights on which new career?

Lawyer becomes her goal after her own brush with the courts sparks a passion for the subject. She is accepted to study it at the end of season 6.

Which original Charlie's Angels star plays Wendy Fine, grandmother of Olivia Baker, in All American?

Jaclyn Smith was the only original female lead to stay for the complete run of that detective series. In this drama she turns up in three different seasons.

Spencer Paysinger, the Super Bowl winner whose life inspired All American, played which NFL position?

Linebacker was his position in the NFL, where he went undrafted in 2011 yet won a championship ring as a rookie.

In All American: Homecoming, Simone Hicks heads to Bringston University to pursue which sport?

Tennis is the dream she revives at the historically Black college in Atlanta, where her aunt is a journalism professor. The spin-off ran for three seasons.

Which actress, seen earlier in 13 Reasons Why and The Fosters, plays Olivia Baker in All American?

Samantha Logan was the second actor cast, a week after her on-screen father. Born in Boston, she had an early regular role in the drama 666 Park Avenue.

What is the nickname of the Beverly Hills High football team coached by Billy Baker in All American?

Eagles is the name used on screen, although the real Beverly Hills High, where the player who inspired the show was team captain, competes as the Normans.

Which prolific producer behind Riverdale and the Arrowverse is an executive producer of All American?

Greg Berlanti had the project in development by 2017 as one of two pilots for the network, and it was titled Spencer when the pilot was ordered in January 2018.

Laura Fine-Baker, wife of coach Billy Baker, is elected to which office in All American season 2?

District Attorney of Los Angeles County is the post she wins, but she quits it in season 4 after concluding that the system itself is failing.

Which rapper and actress, formerly Freda Gatz on Empire, plays Tamia "Coop" Cooper in All American?

Bre-Z took her stage name from "breezy", a nickname her grandmother gave her as a baby who cried until a window was shut. She began performing music at 14.

Which Pretty Little Liars and Teen Wolf actor plays Asher Adams in All American?

Cody Christian is also the voice of Cloud Strife in the Final Fantasy VII Remake games, a performance that won him a Golden Joystick Award.

Which All American father dies of an illness in season 2, soon after reconciling with his son?

Corey James left the family after learning of an affair, then came back as the coach at South Crenshaw High. He and Spencer make peace shortly before he dies.

All American episodes "The Art of Peer Pressure" and "United in Grief" share titles with which rapper's songs?

Kendrick Lamar also recorded "m.A.A.d city", another episode title, on the same album as the first. Other episodes are called "99 Problems", "Lose Yourself" and "California Love".

Which podcast does Olivia Baker launch in All American season 2 to speak out on discrimination?

Liv the Truth grows out of an idea for reporting injustices that comes to her in season 2 after a family outing with her father and brother goes wrong.

Which actor, The Walking Dead's Tyreese, plays the father of Spencer James in All American?

Chad L. Coleman won a Black Reel Award for the guest role. He is also remembered as the reformed criminal Dennis "Cutty" Wise in The Wire.

Which Boyz n the Hood actor plays college athletic director Rick Barnes in All American season 5?

Morris Chestnut broke through in that 1991 film as Ricky Baker, a character who shares his surname with the family at the centre of this series.

Which All American gang member is shot dead outside his house in season 1 after buying his way out?

Shawn Scott had paid to leave the gang behind, and his death pulls his friend Coop deeper into that world.

Which former gang member in All American later teaches English literature at South Crenshaw High?

Preach Simms goes from gang life to the classroom, and his daughter Amina becomes one of the lead characters of the final two seasons.

In All American season 7, new coach Cassius Jeremy turns out to be what relation to Jordan Baker?

Cousin is the link, because his father was the long-lost half brother of Billy Baker, a family tie that is only revealed after Cassius arrives.

Olivia Baker studies journalism in All American and has found success by the end of season 6 as what?

Author is the career she lands in: she signs a deal for a biography of her father, walks away when the publisher wants his affair included, and holds her first book signing later that season.

Which actor plays Spencer James's younger brother in All American and Emmett Till in the film Till?

Jalyn Hall was not told the project was about Emmett Till until his second audition, and he met relatives of the murdered teenager in Georgia before filming.

Which All American actress, who plays Grace James, directed the episodes "My Name Is" and "No Role Modelz"?

Karimah Westbrook earned a Black Reel Award nomination for the role in 2019, then stepped behind the camera in seasons 5 and 7.

Which nickname does All American give the friend group around Spencer James and Olivia Baker?

The Vortex is the label showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll used when promising that almost every member of it would return for cameos in season 7.

Which job does coach Billy Baker take on at South Crenshaw High in All American season 4?

Principal is the post he fills, first on an interim basis and then full-time. He later turns down a college job in order to stay at the school.

Which All American singer is stabbed by an obsessed fan named Miko in the season 5 finale?

Patience Robinson survives the attack but is left traumatised, and she only gets past it during season 6. She later accepts an offer to perform on Broadway.

Spencer Paysinger, the real player behind All American, captained which college team as a senior?

Oregon Ducks made him captain and team leader in his final year, yet no NFL team drafted him and he had to sign as a free agent.

Where has party boy JJ Parker gone to "find himself" by the start of All American season 6?

Tibet fits the turn he takes in college, where the party boy takes up meditation and becomes a yogi instead of thinking only about football.

Which Jane by Design creator devised All American before handing the showrunner job to Nkechi Okoro Carroll?

April Blair wrote the pilot and gave up the top job for personal reasons in October 2018. Her later writing credits include You and Wednesday.

Which One Tree Hill star directed two episodes of All American, including season 4's "Labels"?

James Lafferty had already directed four episodes of his own teen drama, in which he played a high school basketball star. His second episode here was "Mask Off".

Who succeeds Billy Baker as head football coach of Beverly Hills High in All American season 3?

Elena Montes is half of a coaching couple: her husband runs a college team, and she later hires Asher Adams as her assistant.

Which "Leave (Get Out)" singer guest-stars in All American season 4 as Sabine, a star who records with Layla Keating?

JoJo was only 13 when that debut single made her the youngest solo artist to top the Billboard Mainstream Top 40. Her character trusts Layla, a young producer, with her next album.

Asher Adams is thrown off the team in All American for leaking the playbook to which rival school?

Malibu receives the entire offensive playbook from him, but Beverly still win the game, and he is eventually allowed back on the team.

Which coach, then in charge of the UCLA Bruins, appears as himself in season 2 of All American?

Chip Kelly had returned to the college game in 2018 after four seasons as an NFL head coach in Philadelphia and San Francisco.

Which actor, a former Indiana State hurdler who modelled for Adidas, plays Jordan Baker in All American?

Michael Evans Behling was a pre-med student before modelling led him to acting. Money was so tight when he first moved to Los Angeles that he slept on a friend's floor.