Onyx Collective is going strong.
The Disney-owned brand, which explicitly focuses on underrepresented voices of color and other creators’ shows, announced on Saturday Gabourey Sidibe Comedy pilot, tentatively titled 26, and a direct series order for a multi-party documentary series on Black Twitter. The latter is based on Jason Parham’s widely read 1235263946 Wired Article, “The People’s History of Black Twitter.”
This comedy from corporate cousin 20th Television, inspired by Sidibe’s life story. The Oscar-winning film Precious made famous by Lee Daniels 2009 Award-nominated actress , will play Gabby Brixton. In the pilot episode, Brixton’s life is seen as aimless — she lives with her mom and half-heartedly wants to be a singer/model. When she gets fired from another job, she turns to phone sex. What initially seemed like a quick buck turned into a life-changing experience when she met the woman who became her chosen family and learned how powerful, profitable and prolific her voice could be. This project was executive produced by s Thembi Banks of Only Murders in the Building, of Pose Steven Canals and grown-ish Julie Bean and Sidibe who first shared her story in Memoir, It’s just my face: try not to stare at . Jill Kaplan is attached as a non-writing producer.
Black Twitter, as the three-part document currently being called, from A Penny for Your Thoughts banner by Prentice Penny and Wired Studios and Culture House. Penny, who previously hosted Issa Rae’s HBO comedy Insecure, is directing the series, marking his partnership with ‘s first project Tara Duncan led the collective through his there overall deal. The project is said to portray the rise, movement, voice and meme that made Black Twitter a major cultural force. Penny will executive produce alongside his company’s Chris Pollack and Alex Soler, along with Sarah Amos, Agnes Chu and Andrew Whitney from Wired Studios, and Raeshem Nijhon, Carri Twigg and Nicole Galovski from Culture House. Culture House’s Joie Jacoby hosts the series and Wired’s Parham has producer credits.
The Onyx stable continues to expand its roster, with a roster of producers that reads like a who’s who of Hollywood. It includes Ryan Coogler with his Proximty Media, Destin Daniel Cretton of Shang-Chi’ via his Family Owned banner, Natasha Rothwell and of of Insecure Mature Yara Shahidi. Onyx’s credits to date include Questlove’s Oscar-winning documentary Summer of Soul, and The Hair Story, Legal Drama Reasonable Doubt and Limited Drama Drama , etc. In January 26, Hull will launch a six-part limited documentary series 1619 project, an extension of the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine . Then, in March , the streamer added Onyx’ UnPrisoned , a drama starring Kerry Washington and Delroy Lindo.
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