Pilot News: Vanessa Williams’ Profits, Jeri Ryan Joins Suspicion and More

Vanessa Williams is back at her old Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives network digs.

The actress has joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot False Profits, which also stars Bellamy Young (Scandal) and Shelley Hennig (Teen Wolf).

The project centers around a team of down-and-out women in suburban Arizona who are fighting their way to the top of a cosmetics marketing business. Williams will play Suzanne, the queen bee of a highly successful group of cosmetics saleswomen.

In other pilot casting news, per our sister site Deadline:

* Jeri Ryan (Body of Proof, Boston Public) has been cast in NBC’s Hitchcockian thriller Suspicion, about a man (13 Reasons Why‘s Derek Luke) who is forced to infiltrate a world of violence and corruption to protect his family. Ryan will play the wife of a millionaire, from whom Luke’s character accepts a handshake loan, leading to a fateful visit from the FBI.

* Wendy Raquel Robinson (The Game) and Shalim Ortiz (Heroes) have joined ABC’s soapy drama Grand Hotel, which revolves around a family that owns a Miami Beach hotel, the staff that runs the property and the explosive secrets they hide under the perfect exterior. Robinson will play the no-nonsense staff manager, while Ortiz will portray the director of guest experiences.

* Spanish actress Clara Lago will star opposite Tyler Ritter in the CW dramedy Playing Dead, about a single-dad mortician (Ritter) and his son whose lives are turned upside down when the woman (Lago) who abandoned them 15 years ago returns and asks them to fake her death. Also joining the ensemble is Luke Youngblood (Galavant, Community) as the best friend of Ritter’s character.