Growing up in the South, listening to gospel music and attending church, Danielle Brooks saw a lot of herself in Mahalia Jackson.

“I think as Black women — plus-sized, dark-skinned Black women — I don’t think we always get our moment in the sun,” says the actor, who had longed for years to help bring the late gospel legend and civil rights activist’s story to the screen.

Upon its debut airing earlier this year, “Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia,” starring Brooks in the title role, joined a long line of Lifetime biopics championing real stories of real women — stories other networks often shy away from.

“What they don’t realize,” notes Tanya Lopez, the network’s executive VP of scripted content, “is that women from 90 million households [subscribed to Lifetime] are passionate about these stories.”

Over the past few years alone, the channel has turned the spotlight on high-profile figures, including Salt-N-Pepa and Wendy Williams, as well as real-life heroes like Antoinette Tuff, the Atlanta librarian whose courage and compassion averted an unthinkable tragedy as depicted in “Faith Under Fire,” starring Toni Braxton.

When it comes to greenlighting new projects, Lopez says the question is always, “Has this whole story been told, or told from the perspective of the woman?”

“That’s where Mahalia came in,” Lopez explains. “For us, she was such an important voice in the civil rights movement and was [so much more than] just a nice photo in the background. And so, we said, ‘Let’s shift the focus.’”

Such was the case with 2020’s “The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel,” directed by Christine Swanson. Screenwriters Sylvia L. Jones and Camille Tucker weren’t content to rehash the Detroit group’s greatest hits, of which there are many — instead, the pair delve into the sisters’ complex relationship with their influential mother, Dr. Mattie Moss Clark, and explore the ways in which the group had to struggle against their church’s patriarchal structure.

Regina Louise, whose story was told in the 2019 drama “I Am Somebody’s Child,” says she knew Lifetime would make the perfect creative partner back when she first saw the 2006 biopic “A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story.” The author and child advocate recalls being impressed by Lifetime’s commitment and dedication to handling women’s stories, especially those that have been historically underrepresented.

“I Am Somebody’s Child,” directed by Janice Cooke and adapted by Camille Thomasson from Louise’s earlier memoir of the same name, doesn’t shy away from bearing witness to some harrowing events that transpired during her childhood and her teenage years — a period when she bounced around dozens of foster homes and was sent to psychiatric facilities.

“To see the systematic erasure, and to see how my character pulled up against all of the elements of conflict that came her way, and to not allow her spirit to be squashed — we don’t see those types of movies,” Louise says, noting how powerful and cathartic it felt to spend time on set watching Angela Fairley, Amiyah Fern and Sherri Saum portray her at various stages of her life.

Louise and Brooks agree that Lifetime’s commitment to furthering the careers of women behind the camera was evident on their respective sets. Louise says she hopes to soon help bring other women’s stories to the screen, while Brooks looks to build on what she learned from working on “Mahalia,” where she also served as co-executive producer.

“Other production companies and networks are scared to do things differently sometimes,” Brooks says. “Lifetime was like, ‘Nah, let’s take it on,’ and especially if it’s going to benefit a woman. I felt like this whole time, these women left me a ladder to climb.”

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“Mahalia”Danielle Brooks portrays gospel singer and civil rights activist Mahalia Jackson in this immersive 2021 biopic presented by newscaster Robin Roberts. Nominated for the 2021 Emmy for outstanding television movie, the project sheds new light on the staggeringly talented New Orleans native, whose life had never before been brought to the screen except in documentary form.

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“Coco Chanel”In 2008, the network turned its lens on Coco Chanel, the elegant French designer whose sartorial influence remains unparalleled even today, 50 years after her death. For her powerful starring performance, which captured Chanel’s unrelenting ambition and knack for reinvention, Shirley MacLaine was nominated for a Golden Globe, an Emmy and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

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“Salt-N-Pepa”This 2021 film follows Cheryl “Salt” James (GG Townson) and Sandra “Pepa” Denton (Laila Odom) as they go from community college students in Queens to chart-topping successes on a global scale, highlighting their friendship and the enduring impact they made as one of the first all-women rap groups.

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“Patsy & Loretta”Known for her work on “Thelma & Louise” and “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood,” filmmaker Callie Khouri brought her talent for exploring dynamic female friendships to “Patsy & Loretta.” Nominated for three Critics Choice Awards, the 2019 biopic delves into the brief though meaningful female bond between country legends Patsy Cline (Megan Hilty) and Loretta Lynn (Jessie Mueller), which began in 1961 and ended in 1963 when Cline died in a plane crash.