BET and Tracy Yvonne Productions revealed the finalists for Project CRE8, their competition series that aims to find an undiscovered TV comedy writer.
Taylor Chukwu, Thaddeus McCants, Marcus A. Stricklin, the team of Naman Gupta & Janki Parekh and Desiree Thomas have written scripts and have advanced to the final round of the competition.
Each of the writers will pitch their original TV comedy to Tracy Oliver and a panel of TV executives. The winner’s script will be purchased for $25,000 and they will have an opportunity to develop a comedy series with Oliver’s Tracy Yvonne production for ViacomCBS's BET.
Taylor Chukwu’s script is called Second Coming. Synopsis: Jay is a freshman student attending his dream school Freeman University, the country's foremost historically Black college. His time is cut short when his father, God arrives to Earth insisting he start the rapture and end life on Earth as we know it. With the help of his most loyal friends and roommates, Jay has a week to convince his father that planet Earth is worth saving. Will Jay's teenage urges put all of humanity at risk or will he step up and save us all from eternal damnation?
Chukwu is a Nigerian-American writer from Houston, Texas, who wants to showcase the variety of the Black experience. Chukwu is a USC graduate and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Inc. since 2016. She spent six months studying in the U.K. at the University of Westminster in London. Chukwu is now based in Los Angeles, CA.
Thaddeus McCants’ script is called Lit Lounge. Synopsis: A satire on marijuana’s transition from Schedule-I drug to corporate commodity, Lit Lounge is a 30-min series about a young Black man’s troubled climb to the top of the legal world of weed.
McCants is a Brooklyn-based playwright and television writer originally from Madison, Wisconsin. He is currently pursuing his MFA in Playwriting at NYU, where he is a Tisch Graduate Scholarship Award Recipient. He also holds a BFA in Acting from Ithaca College. His comedy pilot Lit Lounge is a finalist for the 2020 Yes, And Laughter Lab partnered with Comedy Central and 3Arts. His Sci-Fi pilot about the Flint water crisis What Doesn’t Kill Us… was a semi-finalist for the 2020 ATX Pitch Competition sponsored by Sundance and The Black List, and his 30-minute comedy Fakers has won festivals on both coasts. As a performer, he was in the original cast of Disney's Freaky Friday the Musical, working with Tony winners Christopher Ashley and Sergio Trujillo and has worked with HBO, MTV, and was a member of UCB NY (RIP) where he performed with his Lloyd team The Hometown Tigers.
Marcus A. Striclin’s script is called Surviving the 80s. Synopsis: After a freak electrical storm in 2019, the Harris family suddenly finds themselves trapped in 1983.
Stricklin is a self-described "40 year old big kid," screenwriter, and an ardent TV and movie enthusiast. He is a husband, and a proud but tired father to 5 amazing children. He was born in Germany on an American Army base, has dual citizenship and loves to travel, having visited all 50 states and over 70 different countries. He has created several videos that have gone viral during quarantine, and has been featured on Nickelodeon/Noggin, Today.com, Goodhousekeeping.com and Thedad.com, and many offer a glimpse into the fun but chaotic life of this stay at home dad, creative dreamer, and social activist.
Janki Parekh & Naman Gupta’s script is called Inconvenient Love. Synopsis: A rich Indian girl moves in with her broke dentist boyfriend, defying cultural bias and breaking her strict father’s one simple rule: no black guys.
Parekh enjoys highlighting social issues and presenting them through comedy. She has lived in India, New Jersey, Mississippi, and Los Angeles. All these places are home to her. Gupta enjoys blending fiction with contemporary social issues. He grew up moving around India (military brat), and now calls Los Angeles & New York home.
Desiree Thomas’ script is called Uncle Cole. Synopsis: Cole is an ex-con who scams his way into becoming the caregiver for his young niece in order to avoid going back to prison. But when he's lured back into his old criminal life – this lifelong con artist is forced to balance being a role model with being a hustler.
Thomas is a born creative. She started directing plays in kindergarten (peers would have to confirm if she was a visionary or just a bossy little kid). She stumbled into writing in junior high school - when the theater elective class was full. Creative writing was her last choice as an elective, and now she loves it. Fun facts: (1) When Thomas was a kid, she forgot how to ride a bicycle - and that's not hyperbole. She has a fantastic memory. (2) The first comedy pilot she ever wrote took one of the top prizes at the Houston Comedy Film Festival. (3) In junior high school, she carried a dictionary with her everywhere she went. Not the pocket-sized - this was all 1550 pages of Merriam-Webster in her verbose and pedantic glory.
