Press release - Onyx Collective
November 17, 2022
Onyx Collective Orders Comedy Series ‘How to Die Alone’ From Natasha Rothwell
— Rothwell to Write, Star and Co-Showrun the ABC Signature Series With Vera Santamaria —
- The eight-episode, half-hour comedy is a Hulu Original and comes from ABC Signature and Onyx Collective.
- Natasha Rothwell (“The White Lotus,” “Insecure”) to star, write and co-showrun via her overall deal with ABC Signature and Onyx Collective under the banner of her company, Big Hattie Productions.
- Natasha Rothwell and Vera Santamaria (“PEN15”) serve as co-showrunners and executive producers.
- Desiree Akhavan (“The Bisexual”) serves as executive producer.
- “How to Die Alone” follows Melissa (Rothwell), a fat, Black neurotic who’s never been in love. After a comical brush with death, she refuses to settle for anything less than the life she wants, catapulting her on a journey to becoming “100% that bitch” in real life by any means necessary.
- Natasha Rothwell was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series for Mike White’s critically acclaimed series “White Lotus,” which also won the 2022 Primetime Emmy® Award for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. She can be seen in Warner Bros.’ “Wonka” and heard in Disney’s upcoming animated feature “Wish.” She is best known for her work as a series regular, writer and producer on HBO’s “Insecure,” for which she won a Peabody Award and the 2022 NAACP Image Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy. Rothwell was a 2021 Sundance Screenwriters Lab Fellow and has previously written for “Saturday Night Live” and penned screenplays for Netflix, Paramount and HBO Max. In 2020, she founded Big Hattie Productions and is currently creating under that banner for ABC Signature and Onyx Collective. Additional acting credits include “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Bojack Horseman,” “Bob’s Burgers,” “American Dad,” “The Simpsons,” “Love, Simon” “Sonic the Hedgehog” and “Wonder Woman 1984.”
- Natasha Rothwell is represented by Edna Cowan Management, CAA, Sechel, and her lawyers are Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein.
- Vera Santamaria is represented by CAA, Glenn Cockburn and Conrad Sun with Meridian Artists, and Morris Yorn.
ABOUT ONYX COLLECTIVE
Onyx Collective is a new content brand formed under Disney General Entertainment Content (DGE) designed to curate a slate of premium programming by creators of color and underrepresented voices. Onyx Collective ushers an exciting slate of content for a global audience, including critically acclaimed debut project Questlove’s Oscar®-winning documentary “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)”; “The Hair Tales,” from executive producers Tracee Ellis Ross, Michaela angela Davis and Oprah Winfrey; legal drama “Reasonable Doubt,” from executive producers Raamla Mohamed, Kerry Washington and Larry Wilmore; limited series “The Plot,” executive produced and starring two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali; award-winning documentary, “Aftershock,” from directors Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee, docu-series “Gigante,” featuring Don Francisco (Mario Kreutzberger), and comedy series “Unprisoned,” executive produced and starring Kerry Washington and Delroy Lindo.
The brand’s roster of prolific creators also includes Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media (“Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Black Panther”), writer and director Destin Daniel Cretton (“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”) and his production company Family Owned, writer, producer and director Prentice Penny’s Penny for Your Thoughts, writer and comedian Natasha Rothwell (“Insecure,” “SNL”), writer-producer Erika Green Swafford and her production company Chocolate Girl Wonder, Yara Shahidi with her 7th Sun Production Company, and most recently writer-producer Jason Kim (“Barry,” “KPOP”). Follow on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook: @OnyxCollective
About ABC Signature
One of the Disney Television Studios, ABC Signature produces many of ABC Entertainment’s most significant hits, including “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “Station 19”; co-productions “The Good Doctor,” “A Million Little Things,” “The Rookie,” “The Rookie: Feds” and “Home Economics,” and late-night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” ABC Signature’s returning and upcoming series include “grown-ish” “The Watchful Eye” and “Everything’s Trash” for Freeform; “Godfather of Harlem” for EPIX; “Bad Sisters” and “Five Days at Memorial” for Apple; “Reasonable Doubt” and “This Fool” for Hulu. For streaming service Disney +, series include “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers,” “Big Shot” and the upcoming “National Treasure: Edge of History” and “Muppets Mayhem.”
Media Relations Contacts
Fowzia Iranpur
fowzia.iranpur@disney.com
Press materials are available at www.dgepress.com.