Words by: Sentwali Holder

Some may know Angelica Nwandu, as the founder and CEO of The Shade Room, one of the largest Black-owned media company’s in the world dishing on anything that’s newsworthy in entertainment. However, her latest project, finds her penning Juju, a horror-comedy feature film from Universal Pictures.

Jumpstarting Nwandu’s dive into Hollywood is a star-studded all-female lead team that includes super producer and creator of Insecure, Issa Rae, actress, and host Lala Anthony, director Thembi Banks, and producer Deniese Davis. As originally reported by Shadow and Act, she delved into her path building up to this career milestone and how she was able to take this leap while still operating The Shade Room. “I thought my whole life I would be working towards writing. I didn’t know I would take a pivot, go off to do The Shade Room, and come back to [writing],” she shared. “I always said I’m going to write something good and it took me a long time to navigate what I was going to be doing in writing.”

Nwandu’s writing background goes back to when she was a Sundance Fellow, after reading a poem called ‘Behind Bulletproof Glass.’ Sundance’s founding director Michelle Satter then approached her with a $5,000 grant offer that led Nwandu to write award-winning pieces.

Now Nwandu has seized the opportunity to be in development with major Hollywood production companies and premium cable networks to create and write original, linear content based on her and others’ experiences. As for the film Juju, Nwandu is happy to open up a new lane for her Hollywood journey alongside several Black women industry veterans who can relate to her message.

“I’m happy for the U-turn that got me in me in the door and I’m excited to work with Black women because they just get it,” she said. Thembi [and I] we were talking about the creative of [the film], what we want to do and how we want to get it on the mark to make it as authentic as possible. When we discussed ideas, they just flowed as if you were talking to your homegirl,” she says about their earlier conversations.

After initially pitching the idea for Juju by Anthony, Nwandu and her then got Issa Rae on board to help produce and the rest was history. Working with these influential women was important for Nwandu to put on display the talent across Hollywood and continue to uplift voices from the culture in a way that creates more opportunities for others. Her overarching goal for Juju is to keep it relatable to the culture. “I’m excited to have [Juju] be in our voice and taste,” she said. “I know that because we have so many Black women, who are in the culture and know it, coming together we’re going to make sure it reflects us.”

With such a heavy focus on the impact of Black voices and stories in Hollywood, Nwandu realizes how important it is for authentic language to be at the forefront of all Black-centric narratives. “I have learned how important it is to speak the same language because if you don’t everything can just miss the mark,” she shared. “The only way for me to have a project like this feel as authentic as possible is to have real people who are experiencing those things and who know the culture be a part of it.”

As Nwandu continues to find her own lane in tinsel town, she hopes this new opportunity with Juju, will kick indoors for other Black creatives and people of color to ignite their own careers within the industry. “My goal is to partner with other Black creators because I feel like running TSR and writing is great, but there’s so much more that can be done,” she said. “Once I can open the door for others I want to work with other Black writers and producers, and be able to team up with people so we can have those stories that we really want and have a diverse range. I feel like there’s so many stories that don’t see the light of day because of a lack of resources so my dream is to use TSR to give that platform to other content creators.”

The post The Shade Room Founder Angelica Nwandu Working To Bring Black Female-Centric Stories To Hollywood appeared first on The Source.