Historical series about Cleopatra in development at Peacock

Peacock goes to ancient Egypt with Cleo, a dramedy in development at the streaming service. Writer Jessica Runck (Man with a Plan), Jane the Virgin developer/showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman, Aaron Kaplan's Kapital Entertainment, TrillTV and CBS Studios, where Urman has a general agreement behind the project.

Written by Runck and Urman as showrunner, Cleo revolves around Cleopatra, an overqualified young woman who must hide her intelligence behind makeup, clothes and men to earn the respect she needs to keep her job: Queen of Egypt. Cleo is a dramatic comedy set in ancient Egypt, proving that not much has changed in 2,000 years. Cleo has the same feminist approach as Urman's Peabody Award-winning Jane the Virgin.



Urman (pictured) and Runck are producing alongside Kaplan and Brian Morewitz for Kapital Entertainment, Wendi Trilling for TrillTV and Joanna Klein and Karen Forman. CBS Studios is the studio.

Urman developed and produced The CW's Jane the Virgin. She also produced The CW's reboot of Charmed (2018), which ran for four seasons, as well as the CBS medical drama Good Sam and Lifetime's Flowers in the Attic: The Origin. For Jane the Virgin, Urman created Emily Owens, M.D., also for The CW.

Runck recently served as a consulting producer on Hallmark's The Way Home, starring Andie MacDowell. Prior to that, she worked on the last three seasons of CBS's Man with a Plan, starting as a staff writer in season two and moving up to executive editor.

Kapital and TrillTV, who are behind the CBS hit comedy The Neighborhood, previously created Triggered at Peacock, a comedy from writer-producer Dana Klein.