Gabourey Sidibe is dialing up her next TV role with the Onyx Collective. Onyx ordered the pilot for Gabourey Sidibe’s phone sex comedy 1266.
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Inspired by Sidibe’s true-life story, the series follows Gabby Brixton, who is living at home, making small attempts to become a singer/model and overnight millionaire. After getting fried from from job after job, she stumbles upon the gig of a lifetime ― phone sex. What initially seems like a quick way to make money 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.
Sidibe is starring and executive producing with Thembi Banks who is also writing the script as well as directing the pilot. Steven Canals and Julie Bean are also executive producing with Jill Kaplan to serve as a non-writing executive producer. Banks and Bean will be co-showrunners.
If picked up, 1266 will air on Hulu.
Sidibe first broke out by playing the title role in the 2009 film Precious, earning an Oscar nomination. She later played Becky on the Fox primetime soap Empire and appeared in several seasons of American Horror Story. Her other TV credits include Difficult People and The Big C.
Onyx Collective is a content brand under the Disney umbrella. And it is focused on telling stories by Black writers and other underrepresented groups. The brand’s projects stream on Hulu, with legal drama Reasonable Doubt debuting in September. Also in the works: the Kerry Washington and Delroy Lindo comedy Unprisoned (premiering March 10) and the docuseries The 1619 Project (premiering Jan. 26).