Issa Rae & Mike Gauyo Premiere ‘Fruit: The Cost of Legacy,’ A Queer Love Story Hiding Inside a Football Dynasty

When legacy comes with strings attached, what do you owe the family name, and what do you owe yourself? That’s the question at the heart of Issa Rae and Mike Gauyo’s newest audio drama. 

“Fruit: The Cost of Legacy” premiered Thursday exclusively on Audible, marking the third installment of Rae and Gauyo’s “Fruit” franchise. Audible Originals announced the series Wednesday. Rae and Gauyo created the show together, with Rae, Gauyo and Raedio, Rae’s audio and music venture, executive producing. Gauyo also wrote the series alongside Kira Talise, Darnell Brown, RK Russell, Joshua L. Myers and Jules Crosby, and directed it himself.

The series follows Marc St. James, played by Siddiq Saunderson, a star running back at the University of Los Angeles and heir to one of sports’ most celebrated dynasties. He’s the golden boy of college football’s brightest family: his brother, Jordyn St. James, played by Jonica Booth, is a WNBA champion; his mother, Sheryl St. James, played by Cassandra Freeman, is an Olympic sprinter; and his father, Andre St. James, played by Amin Joseph, is an NFL Hall of Famer. 

Marc appears to have inherited everything until a leaked audio recording exposes his private relationship with his boyfriend, Trae Rice, played by Justen Ross, and the carefully built image of the St. James family begins to crack.

What follows is a season-long reckoning as Marc performs on every front at once: on the field, in his relationship, within his family and under a media spotlight that won’t let up. At its center, the series asks what happens when the life you inherit collides with the life you actually want, working through masculinity, sexuality, family and ambition along the way.

“Fruit: The Cost of Legacy is for fans of the original Fruit and for new audiences who’ve been craving more Black LGBTQ stories,” Gauyo exclusively told Gaye Magazine.

“Coming back to the world of Fruit, now as an Executive Producer and Co-creator with Issa Rae, means so much because I get to explore different mediums of storytelling outside of just TV writing and I get to introduce a family (not unlike many) that has more than one gaye sitting at the family dinner table,” Gauyo said.

The cast rounds out with Yutopia Essex, Kendall Kyndall and Mike Merrill, along with Tristen J. Winger, D.K. Uzoukwu, Christina Anthony, Mason McCulley, Darren Dalton, Thomas Mackie, Mackenro Alexander, Talia Caldwell, Keylon Hall, David Alan Madrick and Roderick Davis. Jessie Woo, Gail Bean and Rae herself appear as guests.

This marks Rae and Gauyo’s latest collaboration; Gauyo previously worked with Rae on earlier installments of the “Fruit” franchise, and the two have built a recurring creative partnership through Raedio, Rae’s audio and music venture. Gauyo also leads the Black Boy Girl Writers Mentorship Initiative, which supports emerging writers of color.

“Fruit: The Cost of Legacy” is streaming now, exclusively on Audible. Watch an exclusive sneak peek below.