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Google PlayGabourey Sidibe has landed another small-screen role.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Oscar-nominated actress will star in a comedy pilot inspired by her time as a phone sex operator. The show, tentatively titled 1266, was announced Saturday during the Television Critics Association winter press tour. THR reports the pilot was picked up by the Disney-owned Onyx Collective, a content brand that focuses on creators of colors and programs about underrepresented groups.
Sidibe will play Gabby Brixton, a 20-something-year-old who turns to phone sex after failing to keep a steady job. According to the show’s official synopsis, Gabby’s attempt to make quick money eventually “turns into a life-changing experience when she meets the women who become her chosen family and learns how powerful, profitable and prolific her voice can be.”
Prior to her breakout role in Lee Daniels’ Precious, Sidibe had a brief stint working as a phone sex operator. She spoke about the job in her 2017 memoir, This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare, recalling just how nervous she was on her first day.
“’I had no idea what to say! I was 21 years old!” she wrote, adding that she used the pseudonym “Becky.” “I wasn’t a virgin, but I certainly wasn’t some hot and horny temptress who knew what to do with that hard cock. I didn’t know what to do with it in person, and I didn’t know what to do with it in a white-male fantasy. I mean, damn!”
Sidibe will executive produce 1266, alongside Thembi Banks (Only Murders in the Building), Steven Canals (Pose), and Julie Bean (Grown-ish).
Onyx also announced a three-part docuseries about Black Twitter. The project comes from Prentice Penny’s A Penny for Your Thoughts, Wired Studios, and Culture House. It’s reportedly based on Jason Parham’s 2021 Wired article, “A People’s History of Black Twitter.”
Penny will not only direct the series, he’ll also serve as executive producer along with Chris Pollack and Alex Soler of A Penny for Your Thoughts; Wired Studios’ Sarah Amos, Agnes Chu, and Andrew Whitney; and Culture House’s Raeshem Nijhon, Carri Twigg and Nicole Galovski.
