The story
Kwabena pays the bills with a recruitment job in London, but what he really wants is to direct films. When an old film-school friend, freshly back from Nigeria, offers to slip his script to the development team at her production company, he starts trying to talk his way into an industry that keeps him at arm's length, while juggling gig-economy shifts, a budding romance and a crowded family home.
Why it matters
Dreaming Whilst Black took the long road from self-made web series to BBC Three: a 2021 pilot won a BAFTA Craft emerging-talent award, and the full series, co-produced by A24, followed two years later. Its satire of how the screen industry talks about diversity gives this online-to-TV story an extra, knowing edge.
From web series to TV
Dreaming Whilst Black began as a web series in 2018, made by Adjani Salmon and fellow Met Film School alumni. A BBC Three pilot followed in 2021 and won a BAFTA Craft award, and the full series, co-produced by A24 and Big Deal Films, premiered on BBC Three on 24 July 2023.
Notable facts
- The 2021 pilot won a BAFTA Craft Award for emerging talent (fiction) and the Royal Television Society's 2022 Breakthrough Award. (source)
- The full series is co-produced by A24 and Big Deal Films. (source)
- In the US it was shown on Paramount+ and Showtime from September 2023. (source)
- In February 2024 it won the International Programme category at the Broadcast Awards. (source)
- The first web-series episode, "My Name is Kwabena", was published on YouTube on 18 March 2018 by co-creator Laura Seixas. (source)