Essence Film Fest 2025 Exclusive: Writer Leah Chaney and director Ananda White and talk Episode Pilot ‘Single and Thriving….Kind Of’
Among the projects that played at the 2025 Essence Film Festival was the TV pilot screening of ‘Single and Thriving…Kind Of,’ written and produced by Leah Chaney and directed by Ananda White. The pilot is a dramedy that explores Black love and success— whatever that is— in the age of social media.
Blackfilmandtv.com spoke with Chaney and White on ‘Single and Thriving…Kind Of.’
What led you to do it?
Leah Chaney: I think just being a black woman in corporate America. I have a corporate job and just really understanding that impact on our psyche as black women and then our relationships and black love with black men, I just wanted to explore that a little bit more. I think we always get a little bit of insight into that role but kind of seeing how it comes to life as you are young and trying to understand yourself and still balancing love and career endeavors
The story follows 20-something year old Cassandra. She's a black transplant living in Brooklyn. She is surrounded by her two best friends Ryan and Marcus and it's really just about black friendship overcoming systemic racism in corporate America and what it's like to really become yourself and to realize that it's okay to be thriving but also struggling at the same time. That's just like a human experience.
How'd you get involved?
Ananda White: Well, she wrote it and she's like, okay I want to make this like bring this to life and I went to school for film. I'm a filmmaker and so she was like “Ananda you helped me out.” We always knew each other. We grew up together and I just moved to Brooklyn and she's like, “you're the filmmaker. I want to take this story too. So I got on as the director and went through the whole process including casting.
Is this your first project you directed?
Ananda White: This is my first pilot, my first episode I directed. I did some small things in school, but this is my first project outside of school.
Are all the episodes written out already?
Leah Chaney: They are all eight episodes already written. We're just figuring out how to bring the rest of them to life.
Is this supposed to be a half-hour comedy or an hour comedy? Is it a comedy or drama?
Leah Chaney: It's a half-hour dramedy. More comedy and drama.
Where would you like to take it? Is it worth to go to network or streaming? Is it worth to see it weekly or all at once?
Leah Chaney: Weekly. I'm not that good at doing that anymore, but I think we like going back to old TV. We play a lot of respect to old black TV like the 90s. There's a lot of references if you really into TV and you'll get some of those references. And so we want to see it every week and we do want to see it on streaming platforms. I just feel like that's where our audience is.
What's the next step after this festival?
Leah Chaney: We're continuing to just network and do more film festivals; meet more people and just see who else believes in it that we can collaborate with.
