Issa Rae’s latest partnership is a full circle moment. The “Insecure” creator, who got her start by creating her own lane — and community — on the internet, is helping up-and-coming creators do the same.
ColorCreative, the management company co-founded by Rae and led by CEO Talitha Watkins, has partnered with Tubi to launch Stubio, a program that gives five creative teams the opportunity to develop their debut projects, which will premiere on the streaming service. ColorCreative will mentor the creators, and Tubi will fund their productions.
“To be able to participate in a pipeline for the next generation of creators to have a fast track into this industry is all that I’m about,” Rae told HuffPost. “And to be able to also mentor these creatives on their journey, in an organized, cohesive way to produce something tangible, is also what I’m about.”
“Sometimes mentorship can feel like ‘Oh, I don’t get to see the results,’ or ‘It’s a lot of advice and I don’t know if it’s really helping,’” she continued. “But I get to also see the fruits of their labor in real time. And they get to have something that they can say that they worked on that gets to see the light of day via Tubi. That’s the most important thing, a platform for their work.”
Nicole Parlapiano, Tubi’s chief marketing officer, said having Rae and ColorCreative on board makes a big impact, especially given how Rae was able to create her own entry into the industry with her award-winning web series “The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl.”
“It’s not that other people haven’t done it, but she’s the most prominent and most prolific,” Parlapiano said. “I think the sad thing is that there haven’t been many Issas since. It’s happening very rarely at this point, and it feels like it should have been more of a watershed moment for more of these digital creators to be able to get an HBO deal and make something, but it hasn’t exactly worked out that way.”
Tubi has already greenlit four projects from creators: a docuseries following rapper Lady London as she records her debut album; a feature film based on Kelon Campbell’s viral TikTok character Terri Joe; a workplace comedy from Grant Gibbs, Ashley Gill and Robin Jordan that takes place in a diner; and a comedy special featuring sets from up-and-comers Cris Sosa, Daniela Mora and Grant Moore.
“We wanted to make sure that we had enough different types of projects to just see what would honestly ― like, what people would gravitate towards and what’s gonna work on the platform,” Parlapiano explained. “These are all folks that are on the cusp of being so fucking big, but they’re just not there yet.”
The fifth project will come from a pool of 14 applicants selected by Tubi and ColorCreative. Audiences who register via the applicants’ website or app will get the opportunity to learn about their projects and engage with their posts on the platform. Whichever creators reach 15,000 engagements first, or land the top spot on the Stubio leaderboard after a three-week period, will get the green light.
Watkins told HuffPost she’s excited to support new filmmakers and creators in an innovative way.
“This is really listening to the audience and reacting,” she said. “And I know it’s something that creators in the early spectrum of the digital creator world, like Issa, really took to heart in listening to the comments back then. It’s a great and interesting way of hearing from fans and helping them to be a part of the process.”
“Having a front row seat to it and being actively engaged in seeing how the development is happening,” she continued, “it’s almost like they’ve given the creators a shorthand that is usually held for someone who’s done tons of business with that studio or network.”
Watkins compared the program to having access to decision makers at studios.
“Personally, I want BIPOC and marginalized creators to get used to that,” she said.
Rae praised the program for modeling systems that are true to how the business works.
“I think the diverse array of offerings is exciting because there is really something for everyone,” she said of the participants. “They’re taking ownership of their own story. There are collaborations that wouldn’t necessarily happen outside of this space, and I’m all about networking across. So to be able to have two content creators from different backgrounds work together to create a project together, and understand that that’s also how it works in the industry world ― we’re emulating so many models of the actual industry that will prepare them ultimately to continue their careers.”
After what felt for a while like a surge in opportunities for fresh stories and voices, Hollywood has regressed. And with economic challenges, mergers and acquisitions, and the 2023 writers and actors strikes, original work that tells nuanced and unique stories has gotten sacrificed. That doesn’t only hurt those currently making — and hoping to make — a living in the industry and their projects. It’s bad for audiences too, especially with streaming prices on the rise.
“We're emulating so many models of the actual industry that will prepare them ultimately to continue their careers.”
- Issa Rae
Tubi, known in various pockets of the internet for its meme-worthy content, is free and driven by ads, and has 81 million users to date. Viewers have turned to the platform for nostalgic TV and film and indie projects. As production shoots occur less frequently on the east and west coasts, cities like Atlanta and Detroit have become hubs for straight-to-Tubi films. As HuffPost’s Phil Lewis noted in “What I’m Reading” in 2023, Tubi “has become an outlet for independent Black filmmakers to showcase their art.”
Parlapiano said that because Tubi’s business model is different from those of paid streamers like Netflix and Hulu, it has room to innovate with the content and creators on its platform in different ways.
“We’ve always been optimizing for engagement. So we’ve just perfected being able to put the right stories in front of the right audience,” she said. “There’s a ton of movies and shows on Tubi that we’re not marketing, but that do extremely well because they just find their audience really quickly.”
“We don’t have as big of budgets as the other streamers,” she noted. “The shows that we put marketing behind are few and far between, so we are supporting them with as much production, PR, and social power that we can.”
According to UCLA’s latest Hollywood Diversity Report, audiences are demanding more diverse storytelling, and women and people of color drove the biggest box office numbers in 2023. Watkins said the future of filmmaking is inherently more diverse, so it’s important to invest in creators who can meet that demand and tell a wider range of stories.
Rae said creators face a number of roadblocks today, including finding a way to make their content stand out in an oversaturated market. But she believes Stubio will help shine a light on these creators’ work.
Her and Watkins’ efforts to “empower creators to reach their greatest potential by disrupting creative industries and championing innovative and inclusive entertainment” remain at the center of their collaboration.
“This is a clear example of taking risks,” she said. “And financing and putting money in the future of storytellers as opposed to the stale, I think kind of safe, boring version of mining IP down to its fricking nubs.”
Rae said playing into nostalgia isn’t always what works.
“I just feel like Hollywood can invest in the future,” she said. “Because of the strike and because of the pandemic, because so many resources have been depleted, there is just such a fear and a tie to please Wall Street. That it’s not, in their minds, currently economically advantageous to take these risks. But a program like this can show why it can be.”
Though she acknowledges the struggling state of the industry, the Peabody-winning writer said she doesn’t “have any other choice” than to keep creating and helping others reach a platform to do the same.
“This is what I want to do,” she said matter-of-factly. “This is the industry that I want to be in. We’re still creating projects.”
As Rae continues to build her empire (with a studio in Inglewood, California, as its lodestar), the project she’s most excited about right now is a buddy comedy starring Keke Palmer and SZA.
The TriStar Pictures film — produced by Rae, written by “Rap Sh!t” showrunner Syreeta Singleton and directed by Lawrence Lamont — is set to hit theaters on Jan. 24. The title has yet to be revealed. The movie will be Lamont’s directorial debut, and SZA’s first acting turn in a feature film.
“[It] has been such a rewarding example of reaching across the aisle, reaching back, and giving people opportunities,” Rae said of the collaboration on the film. “I think the movie’s brilliant and I’m excited for people to see it, and that’s the rewarding part. We’re still charging ahead. I’m still writing. I’m still telling stories. Nothing’s changed on my end. And I know, just like it always does, the tide will turn back and the industry will understand how rewarding and profitable our stories are.”