For our latest episode of This Might Get Me Canceled, I sat down with director and writer Thembi Banks—and this one’s not about surface-level success. It’s about the real stuff: the detours, the delays, the doubt, and the deep-rooted drive it takes to stay in the game.
From directing her feature debut Young. Wild. Free. to working on shows like Survival of the Thickest, Running Point, and Mara Brock Akil’s upcoming series Forever, Thembi opens up about what it means to navigate Hollywood as a Black woman filmmaker—post-strike, post-setback, and still pushing.
We talked about the years it took to get her film off the ground, the power of having Black financiers like Charles King and Tommy Oliver in her corner, and why she believes independent TV might be the next wave. She also gets candid about motherhood, sacrifice, and how Spike Lee helped her fall in love with herself through film.
This conversation isn’t just about directing—it’s about trusting your journey even when the doors don’t open the first time. Or the fifth. Thembi Banks is one of the voices shaping the future of storytelling, and she’s doing it with vision, strategy, and heart.
Watch the full interview below