“Brown Girls” is Headed for Cable Access

Brown Girls, a show that looks at being a brown person of color, will now be seen on HBO.

According to Elle, the show is directed by Sam Bailey and written by Fatimah Ashgar. The show originally premiered as a webseries on Open TV, and was such a success that it is now moving from an experimental medium to a popular cable channel.

The series focuses on the friendship between Leila, a Pakistani-American Muslim who identifies as queer, and Patricia, who is African-American. The two live in a hip area of Chicago and are inseparable best friends. In addition to Leila, many of the other characters in the show, also people of color, identify as LTBGQ.

“It’s a story that folks hadn’t seen before, but is relatable,” Asghar told Elle in an interview. “I can’t tell you the amount of times people have said, ‘This is me and my best friend,’ or, ‘This feels like my friend group,’ or, ‘I can see myself in this.’ Part of it is the lack of representation of many different races in Hollywood in general. And also part of it is the way these girls operate in the web series in terms of their races, their identities, their personalities, and their class background.”

If you haven’t already familiarized yourself with the show, you can binge on the first season at browngirlswebseries.com.