Netflix is expanding its relationship with The Upshaws creator Regina Hicks.
Hicks has inked a multiyear overall deal with the streaming giant. As part of the pact, Hicks is teaming with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground to develop a scripted comedy about four middle-aged Black women from Houston, Texas, and explore how they navigate a world of affluence while also balancing the everyday scenarios of women of a certain age. Hicks will write, serve as showrunner and exec produce alongside the Obamas. Tonia Davis and Ada Chiaghana will oversee for Higher Ground.
“Regina’s shows always feel authentic and relatable. She’s an amazing writer and producer who’s given audiences laugh-out-loud moments mixed with a lot of heart and humanity for years. I can’t wait for her to expand on her work at Netflix, and I’m especially looking forward to this first project with Higher Ground,” said Tracey Pakosta, Netflix’s head of comedy.
Hicks co-created The Upshaws with star Wanda Sykes. The comedy, co-starring Mike Epps, Kim Fields and Page Kennedy, bowed in May and has already been renewed for a supersized second season of 16 episodes, which will be split into two parts.
“I am thrilled to continue my creative journey with Tracey, Andy [Weil] and the wonderful team at Netflix and to find a home here at the place with so many of my favorite shows,” Hicks said. “And I absolutely love that I now get to work with the folks at Higher Ground. Putting the voices of Black women on the screen is so important to me and I can’t think of a better team to do it with.”
Hicks’ credits also include The L Word, Insecure, Marlon, Girlfriends and Uncle Buck. She recently wrote the new Sister Act 3 for Disney alongside Karin Gist. She’s repped by UTA, 3 Arts Entertainment and McKuin Frankel.
The Obamas’ Higher Ground, which has its own overall deal with Netflix, counts animated kids entry Ada Twist, We the People, American Factory, Crip Camp, Becoming and Fatherhood among its credits for the streamer.
Source: Hollywood
