“Raising Kanan ”Creator Sascha Penn Says He Had Nothing to Do with Casting His Wife Leslie Grossman in Season 5 (Exclusive)
“Raising Kanan ”Creator Sascha Penn Says He Had Nothing to Do with Casting His Wife Leslie Grossman in Season 5 (Exclusive)
Julia MooreFri, July 3, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC
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Leslie Grossman and Sascha Penn attend the 'Power Book III: Raising Kanan' season 5 premiere at The Times Center on June 8, 2026Credit: Bennett Raglin/Getty for STARZ -
Power Book III: Raising Kanan creator Sascha Penn quietly married actress Leslie Grossman last year
The couple met on a dating app in 2022, and Grossman joined the fifth and final season of RaisingKanan as Flossie
Penn tells PEOPLE that it "wasn't even my idea" to cast Grossman in the show, but it was "amazing" having her on board
The final season of Power Book III: Raising Kanan became a family affair without even meaning to.
In season 5, Leslie Grossman joins the series as Flossie, a powerful New York City madam. Her casting came during her engagement to the show's creator and showrunner, Sascha Penn, though he tells PEOPLE, "It wasn't even my idea."
Flossie had already "been written," Penn says, when Grossman's name came up in conversation among the writers. "We came up with the character, and we were talking about the character, and [writer Naja Rayne] said, 'Leslie should play Flossie.'"
"I was like, 'Oh s---, what a great idea.' And here we are, Leslie plays Flossie," he says. He "didn't" even try to pretend that casting Grossman, 54, had been his idea.
Having his now-wife on board the series has been "great," Penn adds. "It's been an amazing experience."
Leslie Grossman as Flossie in 'Power Book III: Raising Kanan' season 5Credit: Starz
Grossman revealed her engagement in October 2024, though she kept Penn's identity a secret at the time. She said on Jennie Garth's podcast that it was "so fun" to be engaged, and called her relationship with the showrunner "a wild thing that I didn't see coming."
"Not that I didn't see it coming with this person — I just didn't see any of this next chapter of my life coming," she said. "He's a wonderful person."
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Leslie Grossman and Sascha Penn attend the 'Power Book III: Raising Kanan' season 3 premiere on November 30, 2023, in New York CityCredit: Jamie McCarthy/Getty
She later confirmed to PEOPLE that she was engaged to Penn, whom she described as "a brilliant writer, super talented and an all-around wonderful person." The Martha's Vineyard proposal was "very private and perfect and exactly what I would've wanted," Grossman said, calling it "the most perfect proposal I could have asked for."
"I feel very fortunate and lucky that we met," she said.
The couple privately tied the knot the following summer in Martha's Vineyard. After the elopement, they celebrated their marriage with an intimate dinner planned by Ryan Murphy at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve.
"It really was the ultimate wedding gift that we didn't know that we needed," Grossman told PEOPLE of the dinner. "It was funny because my first instinct was, 'Oh, let's not make a big deal out of this,' and if you know Ryan Murphy, he's not someone that you say no to. And of course, because Ryan is always right. It ended up being truly one of the most special nights of our lives."
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Both she and Penn were married previously and have children from those relationships — Penn has three kids, Grossman has a daughter, Goldie — and the American Horror Story actress said blending their families has been "better than anything I could have imagined for myself."
New episodes of Raising Kanan drop Fridays on Starz.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
