''Lakay Nou'' (meaning "Our Home" in

Haitian Creole Haitian Creole (; , ; , ), or simply Creole (), is a French-based creole languages, French-based creole language spoken by 10 to 12million people worldwide, and is one of the two official languages of Haiti (the other being French), where it ...

) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

television comedy series, which premiered in 2024 on

Ici Radio-Canada Télé Ici Radio-Canada Télé (stylized as ICI Radio-Canada Télé, and sometimes abbreviated as Ici Télé) is a Television in Canada, Canadian Canadian French, French-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by the Can ...

.Chantal Guy
"Une famille bien de chez nous"
''

La Presse is a French-language online newspaper published daily in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1884, it is now owned by an independent nonprofit trust. ' was formerly a broadsheet daily, considered a newspaper of record in Canada. Its Sunday edi ...

'', January 22, 2024. The series stars Frédéric Pierre and Catherine Souffront Darbouze as Henri Honoré and Myrlande Prospère, a married couple in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

who are torn between the traditional expectations of their

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

an immigrant parents and their modern lifestyle as parents of teenagers who consider themselves fully québécois rather than Haitian. It is noted as the first television series ever made in

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

with a majority

Black Canadian Black Canadians () are Canadians of full or partial Afro-Caribbean or sub-Saharan African descent. Black Canadian settlement and immigration patterns can be categorized into two distinct groups. The majority of Black Canadians are descendants ...

core cast.

Premise

Henri, whose parents Frank ( Fayolle Jean) and Rose (Mireille Metellus) live in the other half of the same duplex, has been running the used bookstore previously owned by his father, while Myrlande is a

Crown attorney Crown attorneys or crown counsel () or, in Alberta and New Brunswick, crown prosecutors are the prosecutors in the legal system of Canada. Crown attorneys represent the Crown and act as prosecutor in proceedings under the Criminal Code and vario ...

. In the first episode of the series, Henri receives news from his landlord Steve (François Chénier) that the store will be evicted from its longtime location due to Steve's plans to demolish the building; after struggling to get his father to accept the news, he decides to simply close the bookstore, whose business has been rapidly dwindling in the era of online bookshopping, and instead chase his own deferred dream of opening a

Haitian cuisine Haitian cuisine is a Creole cuisine that originates from a blend of several culinary styles that populated the western portion of the island of Hispaniola, namely African, French, indigenous Taíno, Spanish, and Arab influences. Haitian cuisin ...

restaurant. Meanwhile, Myrlande struggles with whether or not to accept a new job with a corporate law firm where she will have to defend clients associated with

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

, but will make significantly more money than she does as a public prosecutor, and thus will be able to properly support the family through the upheaval in Henri's career. The cast also includes Catherine-Audrey Volcy, Stanley Exantus and Kiara Gaudin as Henri and Myrlande's children Judeline, Jude and Malia, Marcel Joseph and Yardly Kavanagh as Myrlande's parents Parnel and Célestine, Maxime de Cotret as Myrlande's law colleague Guillaume-Félix Tanguay-Boucher, and

Richardson Zéphir Richardson Zéphir (born December 29, 1977) is a Canadian stand-up comedian and actor based in Montreal, Quebec. He is best known for his participation in the television shows ''Big Brother Célébrités'' and '' LOL : qui rira le dernier ?''. ...

as Moïse, the priest of the family's church. Through the first season, storylines include Henri's challenges in getting the restaurant up and running, Myrlande's increasing ethical discomfort with representing mobsters, Judeline coming out as

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

soon after starting university studies in music, and Jude's desire to drop out of school and devote his time to becoming a social media content creator and influencer.

Production

It was created by Pierre, and directed by

Ricardo Trogi Ricardo Trogi (born March 25, 1970) is a Canadians, Canadian filmmaker, director and actor. Career Trogi was born in Quebec City, Quebec. He began his filmmaking career as a contestant in the 1994-95 edition of ''La Course destination monde'', ty ...

. According to Pierre, he had been interested in creating a television series centred on Quebec's Haitian community for a number of years, but faced indifference from the industry due to a perception that the concept would not appeal to mainstream audiences in Quebec, until finding a more receptive audience for his pitch following the

George Floyd George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd had used a counterfeit tw ...

protests in 2020 and the resulting conversations about institutional racism."Creators Who Inspire: Meet Frédéric Pierre"

Canadian Media Fund The Canada Media Fund (CMF, ) is a public–private partnership founded on April 1, 2010, by the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canadian cable industry. It is used to fund the creation of original Canadian content and support the Canadi ...

, November 7, 2024. Pierre noted that

TVA The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...

had previously had significant ratings success with dubbed versions of

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

television shows such as ''

Diff'rent Strokes ''Diff'rent Strokes'' is an American television sitcom, which originally aired on NBC from November 3, 1978, to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985, to March 7, 1986. The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and ...

'' and ''

The Cosby Show ''The Cosby Show'' is an American television sitcom created by (along with Ed. Weinberger and Michael J. Leeson) and starring Bill Cosby that originally aired on NBC from September 20, 1984, to April 30, 1992, with a total of 201 half-hour e ...

'', thus proving that the province's television audience could be much more receptive to Black-themed shows than the television industry was giving them credit for. Writers of the series include Pierre, Souffront Darbouze, Angelo Cadet and Marie-Hélène Lebeau Taschereau. Pierre launched his own production firm, Productions Jumelage, to produce the series and other works highlighting people of colour in the province.

Distribution

The series was launched in January 2024 on Radio-Canada's Ici TOU.TV streaming platform, before premiering on the terrestrial network in April. A second season was released to TOU.TV in January 2025, with terrestrial broadcast again planned for the spring, and a third season is already in development. The first season was also added, in a version with

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

subtitles, to the

CBC Gem CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

platform in 2025."Everything Coming to CBC Gem in February 2025"
''

Elle Canada ''Elle'' (stylized in all caps) is a worldwide magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, and society and lifestyle. The title ''Elle'' means ''She'' in French. ''Elle'' is considered "one of the world's largest ...

'', January 24, 2025.

References

External links

*{{imdb title, 30786033 2020s Canadian sitcoms 2020s Black Canadian television series 2024 Canadian television series debuts Ici Radio-Canada Télé original programming Haitian-Canadian culture in Quebec Canadian black sitcoms Television shows filmed in Montreal Television shows set in Montreal LGBTQ Black Canadian culture Canadian LGBTQ-related sitcoms