Cole Brown’s critically acclaimed debut book Greyboy: Finding Blackness in a White World is set to hit screens from the stable of ABC.
Teaming up once again on the upcoming filck is mother daughter duo Grown-ish star Yara Shahidi and business partner and mother Keri Shahidi. The pair will develop the series and executive produce via their 7th Sun Productions, as part of their overall deal with the studio, a part of Disney Television Studios. Brown also will serve as an executive producer.
Greyboy: Finding Blackness in a White World tries to delve into the experience of navigating the in-between through the black and white world.
The book’s synopsis: “Cole has heard it all before—token, bougie, oreo—the things we call the kids like him. Black kids who grow up in white spaces, living at an intersection of race and class that many doubt exists. He needed to get far away from the preppy site of his upbringing before he could make sense of it all.
Through a series of personal anecdotes and interviews with his peers, Cole transports us to his adolescence and explores what it’s like to be young and in search of identity. He digs into the places where, in youth, a greyboy’s difference is most acutely felt: parenting, police brutality, depression, and dating, to name a few.”
Greyboy warmly received has been lauded by Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, Queen Latifah, Anthony Anderson, and Misty Copeland, among others. Greyboy was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work by a Debut Author.
“From our first conversation, it was obvious that Yara, Keri, and the 7th Sun team understood this story intimately and had a vision for it that aligned with my own,” said Brown. “I’m thrilled to be working with them to bring Greyboy to life for TV.”
“Every time we picked up Greyboy, Cole’s words have only become more resonant,” said the Shahidis. “His essays beautifully, and at times, painfully illuminate the much larger conversations around being ‘tokenized’ while navigating ever-changing white spaces. We are excited to partner with Cole and share the brilliance of Greyboy with a larger audience.”
