Television

Paul Feig’s Digital Media Company Greenlights Series About Muslim Women

Feig: Flicks and the City 2/YouTube

Given his Leading Man Award from the Athena Film Festival and his history of feminism on-screen and off, it comes as no surprise that the first original series from Paul Feig’s digital media production company is about two women. The Hollywood Reporter confirms that Feig’s Powderkeg has greenlit the digital shortform series “East of La Brea,” which tells the story of two young 20-something women of color.

Created by Sameer Gardezi (“Modern Family”), the series will center on Aisha Hassan, a Black Muslim, and her roommate, the Bangladeshi-American Farha Munshi, and their attempts to “navigate the changing landscape of their native Los Angeles home and their own ethnic communities.”

“Brown Girls” co-creator and director Sam Bailey has signed on to helm all six episodes of “East of La Brea.”

Gardezi used a grant from the philanthropic Pop Culture Collaborative and worked with MuslimARC “to develop a project that is authentic to the Muslim-American experience” to develop “East of La Brea.” He will exec produce the project with Feig and Powderkeg’s Laura Fischer. The series is partially funded by Muslim American funding initiative Pillars Fund.

“The inception of this show is a story unto itself, but the stories told through this series are beautifully authentic, and we’re so excited to partner on telling such a magnetic and diverse story,” stated Feig and Fischer.

“I’m beyond excited to be a part of this process and hope we can continue to build a pipeline for underrepresented voices both in front and behind the camera,” Gardezi said. “I’m interested in growing diversity, not injecting it.”

Feig recently adopted the inclusion rider, a clause that ensures projects have diverse casts and crews . His next film, the missing person mystery thriller “A Simple Favor,” hits theaters September 14. Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively star. “Girl Code,” Feig and Kim Rosenstock’s series about an all-female tech incubator, received a pilot order at Freeform earlier this year.


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