Issa Rae’s production company ColorCreative and BET Networks have announced Skyy Blair as the winner of their nationwide contest to give an emerging, diverse writer the opportunity to have their original drama or comedy pilot produced for television.
Blair, a 36-year-old author, playwright and screenwriter from Memphis, TN, was chosen out of 1,500 submissions. Her winning pilot script is CURVES, which follows, according to the official description, ” three Rubenesque, African American women struggling to navigate the world at large and a particularly prickly dating scene as plus size women in Memphis, TN.”
Connie Orlando, Head of Programming, BET Networks, said in a statement that Blair’s script is a welcome addition to BET’s roster. “BET is a huge advocate for inclusion and diversity of untapped creatives, in front and behind the camera, that creates opportunities to tell compelling original stories,” she said. “Issa Rae, Deniese Davis and the rest of the ColorCreative team have been incredible partners in this search. I am excited to welcome Skyy Blair’s unique perspective of the Black experience to the BET family.”
“Partnering with BET to find a compelling and unique story by an emerging writer has always been on our checklist,” added Deniese Davis, COO of ColorCreative. “As soon as we read Skyy’s submission we knew that she would be one of our finalists. Her willingness to be vulnerable and open in her writing and share a narrative we rarely see on the small screen is exactly the kind of story ColorCreative wants to get behind. We are so excited to go into the next phase of development with her as well as our other two finalists.”
Blair was among the finalists who were also present at the 2018 American Black Film Festival in Miami this June. The finalists, including Courtney Perdue and Baindu Saidu (African-America) and Darnell Brown (The Good Book), were treated to a round-table discussion with industry leaders and private luncheon with ColorCreative and BET executives.
Blair’s extensive resume includes her first novel, Choices, which was released in 2006 and earned praise from lesbian and urban fiction readers. The 2009 sequel, Consequences, became part of the Top 10 lesbian bestseller list on Amazon. Her latest book, Southern Comfort, the fourth in the Choices series, debuted as the number one choice in lesbian fiction on Amazon.
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