Veteran actress and two-time Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad is stepping into the opulence of HBO’s The Gilded Age, joining the ensemble cast for its highly anticipated third season. Her arrival signals a powerful narrative shift as the series delves into the lives of the Black elite in 1880s America — a facet of history long overlooked in mainstream period dramas.
Rashad plays Mrs. Elizabeth Kirkland, the matriarch of a prestigious African American family from Newport, Rhode Island. With ancestral ties dating back to the American Revolution, the Kirklands represent a refined and well-established Black bourgeois class. Her character is elegant, commanding, and proud of her heritage — and she has high expectations, especially for her son’s romantic future.
Season 3 introduces the entire Kirkland family: Frederick Kirkland, played by Broadway legend Brian Stokes Mitchell, is a respected pastor and pillar of the Black community; their son, Dr. William Kirkland, portrayed by Tony nominee Jordan Donica, is a kind-hearted, Harvard-educated doctor whose developing romance with Peggy Scott (Denée Benton) adds complexity and emotional depth to the season’s arc.
The Kirklands are not newcomers to affluence or influence. Their social status places them on equal footing with the prominent white families featured throughout the series. But their presence also forces The Gilded Age to confront long-held assumptions about race, privilege, and the intersections of color and class in American history.
Executive producers Julian Fellowes and Sonja Warfield, along with the writing team, intentionally expanded Season 3 to highlight these lesser-known realities. With the help of historian Dr. Erica Armstrong Dunbar, the creative team has woven real history into the fictional drama. Black families like the Kirklands existed and thrived in elite circles — they attended balls, owned property, ran businesses, and sent their children to Ivy League schools. Their stories, however, were often left out of the historical record.
Rashad’s Mrs. Kirkland brings that erasure to light. In her debut scenes, she meets Peggy with poised civility but underlying concern. She’s not thrilled about the relationship between Peggy and her son, citing not only class differences but colorism — a controversial yet historically accurate theme the show bravely explores. Her worry about “the grandchildren’s skin getting darker in the sun” is a chilling line that underscores the internalized prejudice even within Black communities at the time.
This tension sets up one of the season’s most compelling conflicts: Will love conquer social boundaries and outdated ideals? Rashad’s layered performance ensures viewers will feel every ounce of pressure weighing on her character — pride, tradition, fear, and ultimately, maternal love.
The introduction of the Kirklands doesn’t just diversify the cast; it deepens the show’s exploration of status, respectability, and what it meant to be Black and elite in post-Reconstruction America. With Rashad at the helm, The Gilded Age Season 3 is more than just elegant gowns and gilded mansions — it’s a long-overdue spotlight on an elite class that shaped history in its own right.
Season 3 of The Gilded Age airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO.
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