Disney+ announced on Tuesday that Bel Powley (“The Morning Show”) has been cast in the lead role of Miep Gies, the 20-something Dutch secretary who hid Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis, in the limited series “A Small Light” from National Geographic. Liev Schreiber will play Otto Frank, Miep’s boss, who asks her to hide him and his family. Joe Cole of “Peaky Blinders” will star as Miep’s husband Jan.
The eight-episode series from executive producers and writers Joan Rater and Tony Phelan, who will serve as co-showrunners, will begin principal photography this summer in Prague and Amsterdam. Susanna Fogel (“The Flight Attendant”) will direct multiple episodes, including the pilot.
It was Miep who found and saved Anne’s historic diary so that she and Otto could later share it with the world. The series title comes from something Gies said late in her life: “I don’t like being called a hero because no one should ever think you have to be special to help others. Even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can turn on a small light in a dark room.”
Powley is represented by Curtis Brown, UTA and Jackoway Austen. Schreiber is represented by Untitled and UTA. Cole is represented by B-Side Management and WME.
“A Small Light” is produced by ABC Signature in Partnership with Keshet Studios. Executive producers are Rater, Phelan and Fogel; Keshet Studios’ Peter Traugott; Keshet International’s Alon Shtruzman; and Keshet Media Group’s Avi Nir.