Production Underway on New Family-Driven Comedy Series STORIES FROM MY GAY GRANDPARENTS; Streaming in 2024
TORONTO (October 3, 2023) - They’re here, they’re queer, and they’re… getting used to it. Created by screenwriters and stars Scott Farley (The Handmaid’s Tale, The Moblees) and Perrie Voss (Avocado Toast the series, The Boys), directed by J Stevens (Sort Of, Astrid & Lilly Save the World), and produced by Andrew McCann Smith (Play Media Inc.), the new digital series Stories From My Gay Grandparents (10x10) - a family-driven comedy for modern times - is now in production in Toronto until mid-October. The series is set to debut on KindaTV in 2024, with additional streaming partners to be announced.
L to R: Alexander Nunez, James Kall, Jane Moffat, Tricia Black, and Perrie Voss in Stories From My Gay Grandparents (Photo credit: Ashley Iris Gill)
After a near-death experience lights a flame within Grandma and Grandpa, they decide to grab life by the Birkenstocks and tell the world their deepest secret: they're both gay. Having lived under the guise of a straight relationship for decades, these two life-long best friends have been each other’s beards for 50 years - and hunny, these beards are giving us Abraham Lincoln chin-curtain realness. But now they’re coming out of the closet, ditching their small-town hetero life, and going after their big gay dreams. First stop, the big city, to learn “how to be gay” from the best gay people they know: their grandchildren!
Mason and Rebecca-Michelle help their grandparents, Barbara and Russell, maneuver the queer dating scene, dating apps, queer fashion, and a gay dodgeball league, which may or may not lead them to finding love for themselves. It’s a late-in-life coming-out story about family, marriage, friendship, acceptance, and empowering one another to love authentically - no matter what age you are.
“Stories From My Gay Grandparents is chock-full of big, bright, queer joy, and love, all within an oddball family who are re-determining what it means to be there for each other. With so many beautiful, yet overlooked, LGBTQ stories throughout history, we wanted to tell one of perseverance, triumph and pure hope,” said Voss. “This is also a universal story, as our main characters find the bravery to start again, even in their 70s. We’re bringing you full-throttle laughs and the absolute absurdity, and adoration that is inherent in family dynamics. This is the show that I needed when I was young and now. We’re inviting everyone everywhere to fall in love with the Butters family and grab life by the rainbows, whatever that means to you.”
“Every member of the LGBTQ+ community deserves well-written, developed, and nuanced representation on screen. There is an ongoing demand for more positive queer stories to counteract the harmful messages that queer people still receive to this day. Both queer and straight-cisgender people need these stories to interrupt the toxic narratives we are all being fed,” said Farley. “Underrepresented stories help us all to learn more about ourselves and grow, because we are all human with the right to be ourselves and feel seen. At its heart, this series is about living life to the fullest and being unapologetically yourself, because we are all deserving of that.”
Stories From My Gay Grandparents boasts an all-Canadian cast of incredible emerging and established talent, including James Kall (Come From Away), Jane Moffat (Fellow Travellers, Backstage), Jo Vannicola (Being Erica), Tricia Black (Pretty Hard Cases), and Alexander Nunez (Moonshine, Avocado Toast the series). The series also proudly celebrates a predominantly queer team both in front of and behind the camera.
Stories From My Gay Grandparents is produced by Andrew McCann Smith with Scott Farley and Perrie Voss serving as creators, writers, and executive producers, and Vickie Petronio-King, Trina Allen, and Lena Lees serving as executive producers.
Voss and Stevens are represented by Play Management. Farley is represented by the Characters.
Stories From My Gay Grandparents went to camera with the support of the Bell Fund, Ontario Creates, and the Independent Production Fund.
Play Media Inc.
Play Media was founded with the belief that great shows are made by great talent. Play develops and produces alongside our exceptional roster to make stories for the international market. Play Media was founded by talent management veterans Lena Lees, Trina Allen, and Vickie Petronio-King and film & television executive producer Andrew McCann Smith. Our team has been involved in critically acclaimed projects like Letterkenny, Trickster, Cardinal, Cursed Films, The Dark and have projects screened at top festivals like Sundance, TIFF, SXSW and Locarno.
KindaTV
KindaTV is an entertainment channel dedicated to bringing you the kinda representation you don’t often see on TV. Bold, empowered, scripted LGBTQ+ series like “Carmilla”, “Gay Mean Girls”, “Slo Pitch” and “GhostBFF.”
For interview requests, or more information, please contact:
Steph Perron, BAE Communications
steph@baecommunications.ca