You know how everyone complains that the hit HBO show Girls depicts young women in the big city as white and privileged? (Like Sex and the City, Friends, and heck… Mary Tyler Moore before it) Well, here’s a chance not just to complain about the lack of diversity in entertainment, but to help make a series about young, fun, hapa women a reality. Kelly Colburn and Kaela Garvin recently contacted me to tell me about their IndieGogo fundraiser to create a webseries called 2 Girls, 1 Asian.
Kaela and Kelly are in their early 20s and they met at NYU’s Tisch School of Drama. “Our friendship was soon nicknamed ‘two girls, one Asian,’ due to our shared half-Asian heritage. We bonded partly because of the stories we told about our Asian mothers and white fathers, but mostly because of our shared sense of humor and interests,” Kaela told me over email.
Like many Asians in the entertainment industry, they found that their appearances and their stories were not exactly in demand.
“The acting parts for our specific look were few and far between. I know I, personally, have never played my own ethnicity in any show I’ve ever done, and I don’t think Kelly has either– there isn’t this kind of diversity in the current mainstream media, which is part of the reason why we think this show is so necessary and why we want to produce it ourselves.”
So for the past 10 months, they’ve been developing the concept for a comedy series that would be distributed over the Internet. The main characters, Caela and Kelliye, are 20-somethings living in New York and trying to break into acting. But as usual, there’s a twist.
“Kelliye’s parents, who are not very well off, offer Kelliye money to support her acting career, and Caela’s parents, who are fairly well off, cut Caela off from her post-college money supply. The rest of the season follows the girls through breakups, career trials, apartment troubles, and even troubles within their friendship, but ultimately it’s the story of two girls who value each other more than they value the mistakes the other makes.”
But the real-life Kelly and Kaela could use YOUR financial support in making their idea for a hapa comedy happen. They’ve created an Indiegogo site to raise a total of $2500 for their production costs. The drive ends on October 15, and at this point, they still need about $800.
Take a look at their trailer and consider helping them out!
OMG – I understand what they are talking about all too well. Having been in the acting world for a long time, I was usually not white enough… or not “off the boat enough” to play most of the characters I auditioned for.
I might have to adopt these girls.
I agree, Jenni, they are awesome. And I’m glad that with the Internet they can create the kind of show they want to have!