Selasi, Weinstock, Fremantle prep dramedy

US-based writer and photographer Taiye Selasi has collaborated with executive producer Nicholas Weinstock, Fremantle and Known Associates Entertainment to develop a comedy-drama set in Lagos.

Victoria Island follows the adventures of a Nigerian-American woman who returns to Lagos, newly married to an oil billionaire, and launches an event planning company with the help of her friends in the city.

Selasi, who is of Nigerian and Ghanaian heritage, will write and exec produce the series through her production company Cocoa Content; Weinstock will exec produce through his prodco Invention Studios; and Known Associates Entertainment, led by Tshepiso Chikapa Phiri, will also exec produce.

Weinstock, whose credits include Escape at Dannemora, Severance, In The Dark and The Package, has a first-look deal with global production giant Fremantle, signed in 2022.

“I always dreamed of working in film/TV — but never dared express it. Those dreams, I thought, were for kids with trust funds, family connections and/or the luxury of unpaid internships. Not for firstborn African immigrant daughters trying to repay school loans. I was wrong,” said Selasi. “Victoria Island is just the first of six series we’ve got in store.”

Selasi is the author of the book Ghana Must Go, children’s book Anansi & the Golden Pot (2022) and short stories The Sex Lives of African Girls (2011), Driver (2013), Aliens of Extraordinary Ability (2014) and Brunhilda in Love.