Mark J.P. Hood has been on a remarkable run. After starring as “King,” a serial kidnapper in Abducted at an HBCU: A Black Girl Missing Movie, the actor returns to Lifetime in a very different role, Pastor Kyrus, in Terry McMillan Presents: Preach, Pray, Love, premiering November 8.
The shift from antagonist to faith leader isn’t just a casting choice; it’s a journey Hood didn’t see coming.
“Because the last thing I did on Lifetime, I played a sex trafficker,” he told us. “I still get hate mail from Abducted at an HBCU, especially since it’s on Netflix now. So Preach, Pray, Love, I think it’s some redemption for me. Like, y’all see, I promise I’m a good guy.”
Even with his real-life roots in the church, Hood’s father is a pastor; he wasn’t immediately drawn to playing one onscreen.
“I originally did not want to do it because when I kind of saw what it was about, I thought it was just a faith-based movie, and because I already have Churchy,” he explains. “What I do understand is that Hollywood and people will kind of pigeonhole you. They’ll kind of only see you as, like, ‘Oh, this is our faith-based guy.’”
After an executive pointed out that, while Hood had a strong range of characters on his résumé, he hadn’t yet played a romantic lead. She explained that Preach, Pray, Love is fundamentally a love story that just happens to take place in a church, making it an opportunity to show a new side of himself on screen.
“Pastor Kyrus is… a buttoned-up guy,” he explained. “He used to be an architect before he accepted the call to ministry. He’s a young 35-year-old progressive pastor who’s trying to grow his ministry, but he’s not married. He’s got the weight of the world and ministry on his shoulders.”
That complexity is what eventually hooked him. Hood wanted to challenge the narrow ways Black pastors are often portrayed on screen.
“I didn’t want him to be like a lame pastor,” he said. “I was like, ‘I could shape the way some people see a pastor.’ I don’t feel like we’ve seen like a young, progressive pastor who presents like me. So I thought that was cool.”
The film follows Pastor Kyrus as he forms an unexpected bond with Charlie (played by Karrueche Tran), a platinum-selling rapper navigating her own reckoning. Their connection is tender, complicated, and believable, largely because it allows both characters to be human first.
“Like, seeing a faith leader deal with being a man,” Hood said. “I think sometimes we look at our faith leaders like they’re God. And we forget, they are human. They have real feelings. He’s a man, but he’s also a man of the cloth. I got eyes for her, but I also got eyes for the Lord. I got a responsibility to my flock, but I got a responsibility to my heart.”
The role hits close to home.
“As a real-life PK, getting to play the character of a PK, a pastor like my father, feels like a full circle moment,” he has shared. “My parents’ faith and love have always grounded me, so this one is truly for them.”
Between Lifetime projects, his breakout comedy Churchy on BET+, and emerging work behind the camera, Hood is intentional about stories that reflect real people.
“Preach, Pray, Love made me believe in love a little bit more,” he admitted. “I’m so in love with what I do… I’m toxically in love with it. But then I get thrust into a love story, and I’m like, oh man, love. That could be cool.”
Terry McMillan Presents: Preach, Pray, Love premieres is now airing on Lifetime and will be available to stream.
