A new platform dedicated to women’s voices, literal and creative, is coming to the podcast landscape. Featuring the talents of Judy Greer (“Halloween” franchise), Jeanine Mason (“Roswell: New Mexico”), Meghan Reinks (“The Honor List”), Bahni Turpin (“Daughters of the Dust”), Sierra Swartz (“Cheaper by the Dozen”), Kylie Sparks (“Squaresville”), and musicians Kori Withers and Sofia Toufa, Fictionz is set to launch in mid-October, Deadline reports.
Headed by Paraluman Media exec Kendall Rhodes, the subscription app adapts “short stories and originals into narrative audio stories that put diverse female protagonists at the forefront. The dramas are predominantly written by female authors and directed by women,” per the source.
Fictionz will release a new series every other week; the projects’ first seasons will consist of three to seven episodes that will run five to 12 minutes each. Its launch lineup will include “So, You Want to Be a Honeypot?” by Kelly Robson, “Farrina” by Cidinha da Silv, “Don’t Feed the Bums” by Lisa Brackmann, and “The Break Up Diet” from writer-director Meredith Littas.
Greer will star in “The Break Up Diet,” a COVID-era story centered on a Hollywood agent.
“Collaborating with the Fictionz team on The Breakup Diet, one of the initial launch series, has been an exciting adventure,” Greer said. “Bringing Meredith Littas’ brilliant and timely script to life through audio recording and then direct to audiences through the new platform, is providing listeners with a new way of listening to content, unlike other podcasts.”
Among Fictionz’s future projects is a millennial horror take on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s feminist classic short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” starring Mason.
“From the outset, we are committed to delivering great short stories with the option to expand them into more seasons with new writers and directors,” Rhodes explained. “Working closely with these creatives, Fictionz invests in the underlying intellectual property and engages with writers on adaptation into audio stories. There are an exuberant number of fascinating stories that are ready to be turned into entertaining audio content for listeners on the go, and Fictionz was created as the app to make them easily available and ad-free to our target audience.”
