If life’s highs didn’t come with the lows, the majority of your favorite people in entertainment wouldn’t have created your favorite film or show. Resilience not only creates character, but it also builds inspiring stories to resonate with the masses. Life at times being ultimately the worst has in turn worked in Phoebe Robinson’s favor.
Following the success of her book “Everything’s Trash but It’s Okay,” Freeform picked it up for a TV adaptation, where she is the star, writer and executive producer. Everything’s Trash is a comedy that follows Phoebe, who is a podcaster that isn’t afraid to speak her mind and navigates her 30s on her own terms. While her journey of self-discovery is liberating for herself and her audience, it tends to create issues with her older brother Jayden (Jordan Carlos), his wife Jessie (Nneka Okafor) and others in her life.
According to Robinson, the show is based on her relationship with her brother in real life — minus the messy drama — and the reality of her career.
“The podcast element has been really foundational to my career in a lot of ways,” Robinson told Shadow and Act in a recent interview. “Whether it’s 2 Dope Queens, Sooo Many White Guys, or Black Frasier, I really just love interviewing people, sharing stories, talking, and connecting to people that way. But that is an industry that doesn’t always necessarily pay a lot, certainly when you start out. So I really wanted to reflect that in the series as well. Doing podcasts and stand-up in the beginning, it took a long time before I was able to make a living doing this stuff.”
She added, “I really wanted to have that be a part of the show and show this character’s journey and how she’s sort of like fumbling her way towards adulthood.”
Ripping pages from her own story and transforming it into a show is an affirmation for Robinson that the challenging twists and turns to get here were worth it — 14 years in comedy to be exact.
What started as feelings of uncertainty in her career has now become excitement. Ahead of the Everything’s Trash premiere, the joy bursts in the star from her witty Instagram captions to flaunting her featured billboard in Times Square. What it took for Robinson to get to this moment makes it even sweeter.
What’s more, her “dream come true” can now be someone’s “Let me keep going.”
“In 2015, I was seven years in. I was broke. I was doing all these freelance gigs to barely be able to afford to pay my rent and live in New York,” she explained. “I had a mouse in my apartment. It was really like, what? You believe in yourself or your dream, but at a certain point, you’re like, ‘Am I being ridiculous? Is it not gonna work out for me?’ You have those moments of doubt where you’re just feeling, why is it so much harder for me than it seems like it is for other people? I thought about giving up and then I was just like, well, this is what I love to do. I just have to hold out hope that it’s eventually going to happen. And here we are now.”
Everything’s Trash premieres on Freeform on July 13.
Watch the full interview below:
