Homegirls (web series)
Homegirls (originally titled and marketed as Stories: Homegirls) is a comedy-drama web series created, written, and executive produced by Juwan Chambers and Albert Christie with all episodes directed by Chambers. The show follows the relationships of four college friends: Brooke, Simone, Layla, and Alexis. This is the first series produced for Switch Up Entertainment. It premiered on YouTube at 6:30 pm Thursday, October 4, 2018, ranking in 236 views in the first 24 hours, beating their record set by Say Our Names. The episodes released weekly every Thursday at 6:30 pm.
In 2017, Chambers began working with co-creator Christie on the concept while on winter break, completing the scripts on January 12, 2018. Casting for only the male characters began after since Chambers reached out to his friends with previous acting experience to be the four leads. Production began in March and wrapped in May of 2018.
The web series was planned to be an anthology series similar to American Horror Story, with each season being a self-contained story with different characters, so they could explore stories they would adapt for television later in their careers, which is why the original title was Stories: Homegirls, but plans of the continuing the anthology were dropped in 2019. Thus causing the show to be rebranded Homegirls.
An extensive marketing campaign was run for Homegirls, beginning with the teaser trailer premiering in front of the documentary Say Our Names. Released with each episode was also an Inside the Episode special where Chambers and Christie dissected the show.
In January 2019, four months after it's release, the pilot episode garnered 1,006 views on Youtube. Homegirls is the most successful and most-watched Switch Up Entertainment production to date with the season totaling over 37,900 views as of January 2024. The reunion film planned during the Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020 stalled.
