Tiffany Haddish is joining forces with a “Little Fires Everywhere” writer for a new comedy. The “Girls Trip” breakout has signed on to topline and produce “Homecoming Queen,” an Amblin Partners comedy penned by Raamla Mohamed. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news.
The pic is inspired by Haddish’s own experience of traveling to Africa and thinking she was royalty — “only to find out that that designation means something completely different there,” the source details.
“Like a Boss” and “The Kitchen” are among Haddish’s recent credits. She won an Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy in 2018 for hosting “Saturday Night Live.” She voices a toucan in “Tuca & Bertie,” an animated comedy about bird BFFs that was cancelled by Netflix after one season. Adult Swim recently announced that it is reviving the critically acclaimed series.
An alumna of “Scandal,” Mohamed most recently wrote for “Little Fires Everywhere,” Hulu’s Celeste Ng adaptation starring Reese Witherspoon and “Scandal’s” own Kerry Washington. According to THR, she’s “currently co-writing a half-hour pilot for HBO with Issa Rae about black teenagers in the affluent L.A. neighborhood of Windsor Hills.”
Asked what changes she thinks are necessary to get more people of color into writing rooms, Mohamed told The Root, “I think it’s important to have more diversity at the top. More Shonda Rhimes. More Lee Daniels. We need more diversity among the people who are given the chance to create and run a show. I think people think that white writers don’t want to hire minority writers, but I don’t think it’s that simple.”
Mohamed, a fellow of the Disney/ABC Writing Program, explained, “People tend to hire their friends. You are in a room for eight hours a day. You want to feel comfortable. You want to at least know some of the people who are in the room. And if your friends are mostly white, then your room will be mostly white. So if you have more-diverse showrunners with more-diverse writer friends, then their friends will be on the writing staff. That’s how things will change.”
