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Philly’s Leslie Odom Jr. and his wife Nicolette Robinson are starring from home in a COVID-themed miniseries

Freeform's "Love in the Time of Corona" was filmed under COVID-19 guidelines, for the most part using actors who, like Odom and Robinson, were quarantined together.

Nicolette Robinson (left) and Leslie Odom Jr. in a scene from Freeform's two-night miniseries "Love in the Time of Corona," in which the Robinson and Odom, who are married, play a married couple, who like themselves, have a young daughter. The series was filmed in their home and those of other actors, some of whom were also quarantined together.
Nicolette Robinson (left) and Leslie Odom Jr. in a scene from Freeform's two-night miniseries "Love in the Time of Corona," in which the Robinson and Odom, who are married, play a married couple, who like themselves, have a young daughter. The series was filmed in their home and those of other actors, some of whom were also quarantined together.Read moreFreeform / AP
    by Ellen Gray
    Published 

Leslie Odom Jr.‘s Los Angeles kitchen is ready for its close up.

The East Oak Lane-raised Hamilton star and his wife, actress Nicolette Robinson (Perfect Couples), are starring in Freeform’s weekend miniseries, Love in the Time of Corona, playing a couple who are finally getting time together in quarantine now that Odom’s character is no longer traveling for work. Odom and Robinson are also executive producers on the show, created by Joanna Johnson (Good Trouble).

The four-part series, which airs at 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and then moves to Hulu, tells the interwoven stories of people in quarantine, for the most part featuring actors who’ve been staying together, including Ally McBeal’s Gil Bellows and his wife, Lancaster’s Rya Kihlstedt (The Bold Type), as parents afraid to tell their daughter (Ava Bellows) that they’re actually separated.

As to whether what we’re seeing of the actors’ lives is actually how they live, well, it’s Hollywood. According to the New York Times, actors gave costume and production designers online tours of their homes and closets, and then were sent some items to use in the show.

“I actually spent quarantine like a lot of people, in the same black sweatpants and black T-shirts, and that wasn’t quite as interesting for television,” Odom told the Times.

The Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts grad is not the only actor from Philly who has managed to make socially distanced work during the pandemic. In May, Rob McElhenney (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) produced and starred in an episode of his Apple TV+ comedy, Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet, that was largely shot on Apple’s own iPhones, using the actors’ homes.

Odom and Robinson, who were married in 2012, met in the theater while working on the show Once on This Island. Their daughter, Lucille, is 3, and, although the couple they’re playing also has a young daughter, she’s not on camera.

In an interview earlier this summer to talk about the Disney+ premiere of Hamilton, I asked Odom about his real-life quarantine, which, like his character’s, was keeping him closer to home than usual.

“We’ve found our rhythm in it, but, yeah, it’s tough,” he said. The reality for parents of toddler is that “you can’t take them to the park, they can’t play with their friends, and you can’t run errands with them. … Your options are super limited. That is the hardest part.”

As for his daughter, “once every couple of weeks, she’s like, ‘I miss my friends.’ Really, it breaks your heart to hear that from your 3-year-old.”

Love in the Time of Corona. 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Freeform.