Dear White People

Tessa Thompson, who played Sam White in the original film, appears as a guest star in the second season in the role of Rikki Carter.

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Sam's headboard is identical to Nola Darling's in Spike Lee's 1986 film She's Gotta Have It. It is the same shape and style, and both feature a candle.

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It was filmed at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

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The characters Rikki Carter and Carson Rhodes are respectfully played by Tessa Thompson and Tyler James Williams. Both were in the original Dear White People film, playing Sam and Lionel respectively.

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Brandon Bell and Marque Richardson are the two actors reprising their roles as Troy Fairbanks and Reggie Green from the original film. Brandon Alter and Nia Jervier also repeated their roles as George and Kelsey (Coco's roommate), but Brandon appeared only as a guest star and Nia is not one of the regulars.

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Although season 1 structurally develops the same story as the original film, the series adaptation makes some significant changes to the dramatic arcs of Coco Conners, Troy Fairbanks and Dean Fairbanks (Troy's father). In the series, Coco is fully aware of the social issues on campus and accepts her race and color, often choosing sides that better suit her personal interests, whereas in the film she not only ignores her race and color, behaving like a "white chick" as her friends put it, but also avoids relationships with others of the same color. In the film, Troy always makes decisions that benefit the interests of white students because his father believes this is the easiest way for a black man to succeed in the white world of politics. Although in both the film and the series Troy's father is demanding and his influence over Troy is suffocating, in the series Mr. Fairbanks gives a completely opposite speech and now demands that his son pursue a political career because black people need representatives.

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In Sam and Joelle's room, the poster hanging directly above Joelle's bed is for the 1993 film "Poetic Justice," starring Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur.

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Ashley Blaine Featherson (Joelle), Jemar Michael (Al) and Courtney Sauls (Brooke) were all referred to by different names in the film: Curls, Smoothe and Wild, respectively.

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Tessa Thompson appears as Rikki Carter in episode 2.3. In the 2014 film on which the series is based, Tessa played the character Sam White.

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