Found is currently available to stream on Peacock with new episodes airing Tuesdays at 10pm ET on NBC. The procedural follows public relations specialist, Gabi Mosely, whose life mission is to bring home missing persons who are overlooked by law enforcement. However, her methods, while effective, are darker than meets the eye. A kidnapping victim herself, Gabi holds her own abductor hostage and provides him with basic necessities in exchange for assisting her with cases.
Nkechi Okoro Carroll created the series for NBC and also acts as the showrunner. Okoro Carroll has several executive producer and writing credits and is known for her work on projects such as All American, The Resident, and Bones. Shanola Hampton leads the cast of Found as Gabi with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Kelli Williams, Brett Dalton, Gabrielle Walsh, Arlen Escarpeta, and Karan Oberoi also starring.
Screen Rant interviewed Nkechi Okoro Carroll about creating a character that doesn’t fit the typical network TV model, and how she hopes Found will initiate broader conversations about missing persons cases.
Nkechi Okoro Carroll Talks Found
Screen Rant: How did you first come up with the idea for Gabi’s backstory?
Nkechi Okoro Carroll: It was very much sort of inspired by what I was seeing in real life in terms of the disparity and how missing people are looked for. There are certain names we can all roll off our tongues, and rightfully so, but there are other names that we should know that we don’t. It’s not that I want to take attention away from one group and give it to another. How do we get all of us knowing all of these names? How do we get all of us keeping an eye out for all of the missing people in the world? I like to call them the Forgotten Ones.
The ones that slipped through the cracks that don’t get as much media attention, usually from marginalized communities, or from areas of society where people have whatever their preconceived notions are about who those people are. Whether it’s what they do for a living, or if they’re addicts, or anything like that. As is always the case with me, I was like, “Okay, how do I use my laptop to make a difference and come up with a way to have this broader conversation in an entertaining way, that’ll hopefully push an audience member to pay a little bit more attention in real life when something like this comes up?”
That was how I came up with the idea for Found. I was doing research into what plays a role in the disparity. Do people hire public relations officers? Do they not? Who are the independent workers in this field who aren’t cops, who aren’t lawyers, but are still trying to make a difference? That is how I came up with the idea for a character like Gabi Mosely, who, as a teenager, was kidnapped herself, was in captivity for a year, saved herself because it felt like no one was looking, and then grew up and swore she wouldn’t let that happen to anyone again. She’s a formidable woman with a mission. And with some flaws. [Laughs]
In line with that, I thought this was such a refreshing and bold storyline to give a protagonist. Did you have any worries or run into any challenges while creating a main character who could be considered an antagonist in some ways?
Nkechi Okoro Carroll: I had worries to the extent that I was like, “They’re never going to let me put this character on network TV.” I was like, “Maybe they’ll put her on cable, but they’re never going to let me put her on network TV.” But I love network TV. I love the pace at which it moves. I love the procedural elements of the case of the week. I knew I wanted it to be a network TV show with a character that did not necessarily fit the network TV traditional model. That was my only concern. It was never a question of if it was the right character. It was just a question of, “Is anybody going to let me put this on network TV?” Thank you, NBC, for letting me put her on network TV.
The truth is, none of us are perfect. Yes, hers is a little bit more extreme, but we have these people that we put in this category of heroes. And then if they make a mistake, or if they fail, we’re so hard on them as if they’re not human and aren’t capable of making mistakes and have flaws just like the rest of us. Gabi is just sort of an extreme version of that. You think she’s the poster child for when you go through trauma, and then healing goes right, and then you realize, by the end of the first episode, maybe she’s actually the poster child for when healing doesn’t go right and the trauma goes unchecked. It requires a certain amount of something happening inside you for you to rationalize, “I can keep another human captive,” no matter what he’s done, right? “I can keep another human captive if it helps me solve my cases quicker and if it helps me save lives.”
To her, the ends justify the means. We would talk about it in the writers’ room. We’d be like, “How far is too far to save a life?” There’s no line as far as Gabi is concerned. You know what I mean? But as the series goes along, and as she heals with each case and with each missing person she’s able to reunite with their family, the healing that she didn’t quite get prior to starting Mosley & Associates, she starts to get it through the cases. Now what do you do? When you, in your worst moment, did something that now lives in your basement? But you’re healing on a constant basis, and now you’re faced with the reality of, “Am I becoming the monster I hunt every week? Am I better than this? How do I right this wrong?” That’s something we see Gabi grapple with as the season goes along.
Everyone on Gabi’s team has a past that brought them to where they are now. There’s even an episode where Dhan seems to look down on Zeke for not being able to overcome his agoraphobia. Why was that plot important for you to include?
Nkechi Okoro Carroll: I want to talk about this phenomenal cast because Arlen Escarpeta, Karan Oberoi, Gabrielle Walsh, the phenomenal Kelli Williams—I can’t believe she said yes to doing the show. Every once in a while, I’m like, Kelli, “This is crazy that you’re doing this show!” I grew up watching her on The Practice. I love her so much. They’re such a phenomenal cast. They took these characters that I did spend a lot of layering and working on—again, I wanted to put this non-traditional family on TV of a bunch of imperfect humans, because that is what we all are.
I thought it was important for people to see that and see these people that, despite their imperfections, despite their flaws, despite their insecurities, and despite their trauma, have still figured out a way to turn that into something good and contribute to making the world a better place in their way. You have actors like Karan come in for the Dhan role and just take it to a whole other level. You’ve got Dhan as the muscle of the group—not only the muscle of the group. I’d argue he’s probably also Gabi’s conscience, in a way. He’s got this beautiful soft side to him as well as the more aggressive, “I will beat the answer out of you,” side to him, and someone like Zeke who, because of what’s happened to him, cannot trust the outside world to the point where he can barely step over the threshold of his door.
What happens when those two people are forced to work together and start to let each other in? That’s the beauty of the friendship we see between Dhan and Zeke and the power that Zeke gets from it, and the softening that it does for Dhan. One thing they don’t do is judge other people’s trauma and how they heal from it, and their friendship is a constant reminder for both of them to keep taking that step forward. The actors are just phenomenal. We throw everything at them, and they rise to the occasion. It’s beautiful.
As a network TV fan, one of my favorite things is watching how characters and relationships evolve or surprise you week to week. We’re still early on, but are there any dynamics or duos that you would like to explore more of in the future?
Nkechi Okoro Carroll: That’s the beauty of a show like this that could go on for so long. Unfortunately, there’s always another case, right? There’s always another case in real life. There’s always another case on the show. The dynamic at Mosley & Associates, and Trent who, technically, is a cop, yes, but I’m sure if you put his feet to the fire, he’d tell you he identifies more with his friends at Mosley & Associates than he does with his fellow officers. But the interaction of all of them—they’re all so layered, and all share a common bond in that they’ve all experienced some kind of missing person trauma, in some way.
In Margaret’s case, it’s that she’s lost a loved one. But that bond, and the way they’ve been able to use their powers for good, allows for all these different dynamics between the different characters. We have a lot of fun exploring some non-traditional dynamics this season. Fingers crossed for future success of getting a season 2 pick-up. We definitely have a lot more planned. When you have a group of actors like this who are just unbelievable, it excites us in the writers’ room, because now the world of what we can do with them, and how we can sort of pair them up in scenes and the dynamics we can play around with just increases exponentially when you have such a talented, talented group of folks.
Where do you derive the inspiration for all of these different cases and characters?
Nkechi Okoro Carroll: Some of it is inspired by cases that have happened in real life, and we’ve sort of put our own spin on it. Some of it is inspired by the generosity of spirit of my fellow writers and our crew—people who have shared their stories with us, because they were so inspired by the show. They were like, “By the way, when I was younger X, Y, and Z happened.” People have been so generous on the show with their stories, their experiences, and imaginations. All of that gets thrown in a pot together. It’s like a creative gumbo. It all gets thrown in the pot together and stirred up and out come these cases and these characters that we see on Found.
There would be situations in the writers’ room where we would literally be sitting there and making it up and coming up with what the case would be, and then we’d be like, “They’re never going to let us do this. This would never happen.” And then the next day, our writers come into the room and are like, “So I did some research. It actually did happen in real life in this country.” No matter what we thought of that we thought was pushing the envelope, there would be a real-life reference to it.
About Found
In any given year, more than 600,000 people are reported missing in the U.S. More than half that number are people of color that the country seems to forget about. A public relations specialist — who was once herself one of those forgotten ones — and her crisis management team now make sure there is always someone looking out for the forgotten missing people. But unbeknownst to anyone, this everyday hero is hiding a chilling secret of her own.
Check out our interview with Found producing director Nikhil Paniz, as well.
Found (2023)
Found is a crime-drama television series created for NBC by Nkechi Okoro Carroll. The series follows recovery specialist Gabi Mosely and her colleagues as they attempt to find missing persons across the United States, unified by each member of the team’s own experiences with disappearances. However, Gabi’s secret to success lies in her basement – where she keeps her former kidnapper locked away.
- Release Date
- October 3, 2023
- Cast
- Shanola Hampton, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Kelli Williams, Arlen Escarpeta, Brett Dalton, Gabrielle Walsh, Karan Oberoi
- Genres
- Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
- Rating
- TV-14
- Seasons
- 1
- Writers
- Nkechi Okoro Carroll, Jennifer King
- Network
- NBC
- Streaming Service
- Peacock
- Directors
- DeMane Davis
- Showrunner
- Nkechi Okoro Carroll
Found (2023)
- Release Date:
- 2023-10-03
- Cast:
- Shanola Hampton, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Kelli Williams, Arlen Escarpeta, Brett Dalton, Gabrielle Walsh, Karan Oberoi
- Genres:
- Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
- Rating:
- TV-14
- Seasons:
- 1
- Writers:
- Nkechi Okoro Carroll, Jennifer King
- Network:
- NBC
- Streaming Service:
- Peacock
- Directors:
- DeMane Davis
- Showrunner:
- Nkechi Okoro Carroll
