00:00It's interesting. You talk about the ebbs and flows and over the course of your career, let's stick with his 20 years and now this news comes out this week.
00:08Is there one thing that's come to light for you about that journey now that you're seeing your creation blossom and bloom as it has that you didn't necessarily consider before this accomplishment?
00:21In all honesty, I felt like I've always obviously believed that I could have my own show. I've always believed that. So that's why I've never stopped trying.
00:34Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I really did believe that. But when I sold this show to Tyler Perry, when did we sell it? It's been a year, two years. It happened fast. Once it happened, it happened fast.
00:51Because I really felt like I felt the shift in me. So for this particular project, which I was inspired to do this project about six years ago, and when it first came to me and I tried to share it and pitch it with people, people were like, they don't want to touch a political show about politics, a political show.
01:14It's like, it's a funny show. It's a political satire. We'll have fun. But I truly believe it. I didn't believe enough.
01:22Like, I believed I could have my own show. But there was also a part of me that did not believe enough that I should be chosen to be the one, maybe. Or that I was on the same caliber of like a Kerry Washington or even Issa Rae.
01:44And I didn't realize, I didn't believe. I believed, but not enough. Like, it gotta be like, dead on enough.
01:53Yeah.
01:53And with this project, when we went on strike in 2023, I had had this project already, but we were all on strike. And I was like, you know what? This is the perfect time. Let me get back focused on this show that I have set aside.
02:12I called my writing partner who I had met like a couple of years before and told her about it. So when we vibed and I loved her, her name is Naya Palmer.
02:21And I called her. I was like, I know we're on strike, but would you be willing to write like the 15 page proof of concept? I can get together a team and we shoot a proof of concept while we're on strike.
02:33So when the strike is over, we'll have something that we could show people instead of trying to pitch it. Because I've been pitching for 20 years and I haven't sold anything yet.
02:43I've gotten close a bunch of times, but so, and she was like, hell yeah, let's do it. So that's what we did. She wrote the same. I start putting together the team to shoot this two day proof of concept that we were going to shoot.
03:00I thought because of the topic of our show, it was important to, um, find a voice to join me on the team as a producer. Yeah. That, um, would make sense. I was in Atlanta. I live in Atlanta. Kisha lands a bottle makes sense all day. Oh, easy. In the political space. Absolutely. Um, and so I called her and I was like, I have this show idea. I want to run by you. You know, would you meet with me? And she was like, yeah.
03:29So we met and I told her what the show idea was and she loved it. And she was like, absolutely. Yes, let's do it. So this is me because I was even, I even was worried about calling her like, Hey, we don't talk all the time. I'm really, I'm that close with her. I know her and we're cool, but I'm just calling her out the blue. Should I call her? And I kept telling her, yes, call her, call her. But that was me like forcing myself. No, you believed, believe, call her, believe that she's going to say yes.
03:57Believe that this project is moving forward. So I had along this whole process. I kept reminding myself, believe more. Why? Believe more. Because maybe 10 years ago, I may not have been so bold to call her out the blue. Yeah. And so it's that kind of belief.
04:15And so stuff like that kept happening along the journey with this particular show. And so put all my heart and soul was able to find an investor because now I got Keisha Lance Biden producing with me.
04:29So I was able to get the funding to shoot the proof of concept. We shot it. It was edited. And these are all with my peers, my friends.
04:37We're doing this community. And so we shot it. It came out exactly like I wanted it to because I was like, guys, what we shoot, it has to look like it could air on TV. It can't look like it's a, you know, it's anything less than something you would see on TV. And we got it right. They got it right. The team got it right. And so when that strike was over, I had ready to go, ready to go.
05:05It went out into the world. And we got calls back to back, wanting to meet, wanting to meet, wanting to meet about this show.
05:13And so we're prepping ourselves, me, Naya, and Keisha, we're prepping for these meetings.
05:19When I tell you, from the first meeting, our first meeting was with Tyler's team. And they offered it right there in the meeting. We didn't even pitch.
05:29They were pitching why we should go to them. They were telling all the reasons why it makes sense for us to go there to do the show. And every meeting after that was just like that.
05:40Everybody pitched us for our show. And Tyler was the one. He made sense for us. He made sense. And I'm so happy. So happy.
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