Film & TV
Cause we ended as lovers
This piece came from a place I never expected to write from—loss. After my partner Kerri passed, I found myself in a quiet space filled with memory, love, and questions I couldn’t shake. Cause We Ended as Lovers isn’t just about grief. It’s about what comes after. The way love shifts shape. The way someone can still feel close, even when they’re gone. Writing it helped me face the ache but also see the beauty inside it. This story isn’t loud. It sits with you, like silence after music.
We Deliver Episode 3
I worked on this series with Geeby Dajani. It’s set in 1990s New York, when the city was rough and changing fast. The story follows a secret marijuana delivery business, showing how it really worked behind the scenes. This isn’t just about the hustle—it’s about the people, the risks they took, and the tight networks that kept it alive. It’s a look at survival and loyalty in a place where the line between crime and business was always blurry. The city moves fast, and so do they.
Subway stories the listener
This started as an HBO contest collecting real stories from New Yorkers in the subway. I was also attracted to the raw experiences people had—brief, intense interactions under the streets of the city. My piece captures the grit and quiet poetry of the subway, where strangers’ lives touch even for a brief moment. It’s about those small, surprising connections that show what city life is really like.
A Brother's Kiss
This film follows two brothers growing up in East Harlem from the ’70s to the ’90s. Their lives are filled with struggle, loyalty, and love—with one another and their neighborhood. The city that surrounds them has changed, but the bond that they carry on has not weakened. The streets make them, and break them, and hold them together at other times. It’s a story about family, pain, and the hope that connection brings.
King of the Jungle
King of the Jungle is drawn from a painful memory of my childhood — witnessing my father being shot. The film follows a young man with developmental challenges as he witnesses the tragic murder of his mother. The story explores his struggle to make sense of a world that now seems harsh and confusing. Set in the city, it looks at how grief and trauma can quietly live inside a person. It demonstrates the thin line between innocence and the harsh reality and how trauma can shape a life in ways that people do not necessarily realize. It’s about survival, pain, and trying to find a connection when the world seems cold and unkind.
Sunset Park
I wrote Sunset Park in 1994, inspired by a true story shown on 60 Minutes. It follows a woman who takes charge of a tough boys’ basketball team at a Brooklyn high school. They’re all rough, and they don’t trust her at first. But through hard work, grit, and heart, she earns their respect. The movie displays the vigor and struggles of New York in the 1990s. It is the story of how the belief and care of one person can give hope to young men, teach them to trust and develop both on and off the court. It highlights the power of mentorship and how sports can change lives.
How to Make it in America
I worked as a writer and producer on this HBO series. It is based in downtown New York, where a group of friends struggles to transform their dreams into reality. They struggle to also keep it on the street, but have to aim at the life of real success. The show captures the constant grind—the setbacks, the wins, and the drive to make it in a city that never slows down. It is all about creativity, grinding it out, and having the belief that you can create your own version of the American dream.
The Get Down
I helped bring this Netflix series to life, set in the South Bronx in the late 1970s. It is about the birth of hip-hop as a new combination of music, art, and street culture. Collaborating with Baz Luhrmann and working with a great group of people, I was concerned with ensuring that the show resonated with the real essence and the spirit of the Bronx. The series follows young people facing hard times but full of big dreams and raw creativity. The Get Down shows how their voices and struggles were a cultural revolution.
Them Covenant
Them is an Amazon Prime show that talks about race, fear, and how the American dream has turned into a nightmare. I worked on the first season, which follows a Black family who moves into a mostly white neighborhood in 1950s Los Angeles. They quickly face threats from both the people around them and strange, supernatural forces. The show does not just present typical scares but the lasting agony of racism. I contributed to developing the story and the emotional state in some of the episodes, ensuring that the fear is not superficial but based on real trauma in years of oppression.