A few months ago, Boots Riley posted on his Instagram about his series I’m a Virgo, that he was working on. He posted the cover art for the show and announced that Jharrel Jerome was already cast in the lead role. Amazon wasted no time snatching up the series to give it a home on its platform.
Amazon handed out a straight-to-series order for the half-hour coming-of-age joyride series, I’m a Virgo. Riley created, wrote and directed the series about a 13-foot-tall Black man (Jerome) who lives in Oakland, Calif.
“I’m thrilled to be working with Amazon on this project,” Riley said. “This show will either have me lauded or banned, and as such, I have demanded payment up front.”
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Michael Ellenberg’s Media Res will serve as the studio on the show alongside Amazon. Riley, Ellenberg, Jerome and Tze Chun will exec produce the half-hour series.
“’I’m A Virgo’ is refreshingly original and there’s nothing else like it on television,” said Albert Cheng, COO and co-head of television for Amazon Studios. “No one is quite like Boots, and we’re so excited to be working with him and Jharrel on this fantastical, funny, and utterly unique new series. We can’t wait for our Prime Video customers to see it.”
I’m a Virgo joins a roster of Amazon originals including the forthcoming The Lord of the Rings, A League of Their Own update, the Reese Witherspoon-produced Daisy Jones and the Six, Robert Kirkman’s Invincible, Jason Katims’ On the Spectrum, Underground Railroad and Them, as well as returning series Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Upload, The Boys and Jack Ryan, among others.
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Riley’s first feature, “Sorry to Bother You,” was a critical smash when it debuted in 2018 at the Sundance Film Festival, earning a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize. He is best known for his two-decade run as leader of The Coup, a radical funk/punk/hip-hop band, where he penned six albums, including receiving pop album of the year by The Washington Post and the Associated Press, and hip hop album of the year by Rolling Stone.