The LAB Studios has released the trailer for Christmas in the Tropics, its holiday romantic comedy bringing a Jamaican Christmas to audiences worldwide. The film is streaming now, free on Tubi, with rental and purchase options available on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV, and hits theaters in Jamaica December 2. Dale S. Lewis directs.
The film follows Abigail Campbell, a content creator played by Kimberly Patterson, who returns to Jamaica to save her family’s struggling spice business. An unexpected romance with Tyler Washington, the man holding the business’s future in his hands, played by Nick Creegan, complicates her mission, pulling love, family loyalty, and her grandmother’s legacy into the balance. Zia Benjamin and Dufton “Duffy” Shepherd round out the cast.
Patterson is one of Jamaica’s most sought-after actresses, known internationally for her role across 22 episodes of BET’s The Family Business, along with film credits including King of the Dancehall, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and the upcoming Jabari’s People, directed by Delroy Lindo, featuring Winston Duke, Wendell Pierce, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Creegan is known for his series-regular role as the Joker on The CW’s Batwoman, becoming the first person of color to play that version of the character, along with roles on Law & Order: Organized Crime, S.W.A.T., NCIS: Hawai’i, and the Peabody Award-winning David Makes Man.
LAB Studios CEO and founder Kimala Bennett framed the film as part of a larger push to build a slate of Jamaican stories with global reach. “We have romance, humour, family stories and so much creative talent to share,” Bennett said. “This film gives us an opportunity to bring that to a genre audiences return to every year, while opening the door to more stories from LAB Studios.” She added that the goal is for audiences to come to know LAB Studios as a place for stories that entertain, move, and introduce them to something new, calling this release “our invitation this season,” with more projects still ahead.
The LAB Studios develops and produces original film and television projects from Jamaica and the Caribbean for international audiences, blending regional culture with broader, universal themes as part of a stated effort to position the Caribbean as a global filmmaking hub.
With a genre built on familiar comfort now carrying a distinctly Jamaican identity, Christmas in the Tropics gives audiences both an early start to the holiday season and a clear signal of where LAB Studios intends to keep building next.