The Quad is probably one of my third favorite shows on BET. Based around a young freshman class at a fictional college called Georgia Agricultural and Mechanical University, also known as GAMU. This series is based on the drama that goes on throughout the university daily. I began watching it around this time of the year last year and have loved it ever since. Check out more information on the cast and their roles below.

The Cast

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Peyton Alex Smith stars as Cedric Hobbs in the hit new BET series. From what I watched, he seems to be a student who came from a slightly rougher background compared to the other students. One scene that gave this away was when it showed a flashback scene from his birthday as a kid. His mother was fixing his birthday cake. Nothing extravagant or big. Just a homemade cake with chocolate icing on it and one candle for him to celebrate. But they didn’t get to enjoy it because gun fire began to ring out in the neighborhood as soon as Cedric began to blow his candle out causing him and his mother to take cover to avoid being hit. What makes his role a big one during this series is when his girlfriend makes a surprise visit to the university from Chicago, Illinois to see him. She didn’t call or give a notification that she was coming or anything, she sort of just popped up. He was so excited to see her and happy for her to be there, he never questioned why she just popped up. He figured her people knew where she was and that it was just a friendly visit. But he was wrong. The next night she was found dead not far from the university grounds and he was arrested on campus and charged with her murder.

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Anika Noni Rose stars as Dr. Eva Fletcher of GAMU. Dr. Fletcher was transferred to the university after allegations began to surface about her affair with one of the students who attended her former school she worked for came up. Fletcher was married at the time so not only did she lose her last president’s position with her former school, but she also broke apart her family as well. Dr. Fletcher is faced with many problems of the university on top of her own personal problems including the sexual assault of her own daughter as she attends the same university.

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Jazz Raycole stars as Sydney Fletcher, the daughter of Dr. Eva Fletcher. Sydney seems to be very privileged. She is granted a 100% free education at the university courtesy of her mother being the president of the school, but she does not seem to appreciate too much during the series, as though she doesn’t truly want to be in Georgia at all. She does not have to work or anything while attending as well so she seems to have more than enough free time on her hands. One thing I noticed about her role is that she seemed to be upset a majority of the time and I believe it had a lot to do with her mom’s affair which ultimately broke apart her family and forced them to move. She was known around campus as being sort of snobby, but friendly in her own way especially with her roommate. But that took a turn for the worse when a recorded video of her sexual assault on campus was leaked campus wide for everyone to see.

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Zoe Renee stars as Noni Williams, a freshman marching band member for GAMU. Noni seems to be a very hard worker when it comes to playing in the band. So much of a hard worker that it seems like she will do anything to reach that top spot when it comes to her playing in the band. Noni is very quiet yet observant so she manipulates a lot of things and situations throughout the first season. What is significant about her role is that her bestfriend ends up being the victim of a brutal assault during band practice after obtaining a very prestigious position in the band even though she had only been a freshman student for a couple weeks. From what I viewed, this is highly frowned upon for the upperclassmen of the band group. During her best friend’s recovery time, she was unable to attend school or play on the band so ultimately Noni was granted her position as a replacement. This didn’t sit well with her bestfriend once she returned to school.

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Ruben Santiago-Hudson stars as Cecil Diamond, the marching band director of GAMU. His role of course is to make sure that all the marching band students are on track and doing what they are supposed to but throughout the season he always seemed to be distracted. Even with the on campus assault involving one of his band members, he still seems to be distracted. Come to find out he is actively fighting a personal battle of his own with cancer after fainting while directing during a band performance.

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Michelle Defraites stars as Madison Kelly, Sydney Fletcher’s roommate at GAMU. Her role was more of a supportive role for Sydney. She was the first person to learn that Sydney had been sexually assaulted, and was also the first person to try and help Sydney get some help after the assault with on campus resources and organizations. This ultimately led to her involvement in an on campus protest towards the end of the series at a very important banquet with top faculty and administrators of the university based on the continuous assaults on campus that were being ignored by university’s officials.

Click the image above or more information on what time season 2 begins for The Quad along with more information on what drama season two will also bring as well courtesy of Blasting News! Thanks for reading everyone!

Credits
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Blasting News – The Quad (Season 2)
Twitter – The Quad

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