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The team behind the widely-popular Serial podcast will take on election fraud with the limited audio series The Improvement Association.

Launching Tuesday, April 13, The Improvement Association is a five-part series that features host, reporter and This American Life producer Zoe Chace as she travels to Bladen County, North Carolina to investigate the power of election fraud allegations. In 2019, Bladen County, North Carolina, made national headlines, becoming one of the few cases in modern history where a congressional race was voided due to fraud. The results of the election were thrown out because of evidence the winner’s campaign had tampered with absentee ballots.

But according to some Bladen County locals, the authorities got it all wrong. For at least a decade, people in this rural county have been pointing the finger at Horace Munn, the leader of a powerful Black advocacy group called the Bladen County Improvement Association Pac, accusing...

The iHeart Radio Podcast Awards 2021 has named Office Ladies as its “Podcast of the Year” winner.

A wooly Will Ferrell, who has The Ron Burgundy Podcast on the iHeart network, opened the show with a series of badly informed statistics. The awards were simulcast tonight on iHeart radio, YouTube and Facebook.

The Office costars and best friends Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey are the hosts of Office Ladies, billed as the ultimate re-watch podcast for the classic comedy. It won the fan vote, continuing the string of triumphs for the show, which returned on Netflix and is coming back via NBC’s Peacock streaming service.

The Office Ladies podcast, produced by Earwolf also won the award for best ad-read podcast.

Conan O’Brien won the award for best overall host – male, telling viewers that what separates his podcast from others is his “lack of professionalism.

Issa Rae and Adam McKay are teaming up to adapt the Serial Productions podcast “Nice White Parents” into a half-hour series at HBO, Variety has learned.

The project has received a pilot commitment at the premium cabler. The show is described as a satirical look at the conflict and comedy that arise when highly resourced white parents, who claim to have the best intentions, wield their influence over generations of black and brown students within the NY public school system.

The search is currently on for a showrunner for the project. Rae and Montrel McKay will executive produce via the new production company, HooRae. Adam McKay and Todd Schulman will executive produce via Hyperobject Industries, which is currently under a first-look deal with HBO. Chana Joffe-Walt, Julie Snyder, Alissa Shipp, and Sarah Koenig of Serial Productions will also executive produce along with Dave Becky and Jonathan Berry of 3 Arts Entertainment.

The New York Times has acquired Serial Productions, the company behind the hit podcast Serial.

As part of the deal, the media company will enter into a creative and strategic alliance with longtime radio show This American Life, which developed the original Serial pod, about the murder conviction of Adnan Syed. The first season was downloaded on average 20 million times per episode and was at the forefront of the podcast boom.

Serial Productions is led by Julie Snyder, Sarah Koenig and Neil Drumming. At its new home with the Nyt it will continue to commission and edit its own stories, which will be amplified by the paper, and the goal is to inject more resource and up the producer’s volume. The first joint production will be Nice White Parents, which will see Chana Joffe-Walt examine the role white families play in shaping public education.

This American Life will remain...

Exclusive: In some big podcasting news, Serial Productions, creator of hit podcasts Serial and S-Town, has hired writer-producer and former film director Neil Drumming as its new managing editor.

Drumming will lead the expansion of Serial Productions’ development slate, recruiting producers, writers and reporters

to develop fiction and non-fiction podcasts. He will be working closely with Alissa Shipp, who develops Serial’s film and TV

projects, and Serial’s rep UTA to create fiction podcasts.

Drumming joins from This American Life, where he produced projects with filmmakers and writers including Adam Mansbach (Barry), Scott Brown (Castle Rock), and Sasheer Zamata (Saturday Night Live). In 2017, he produced the segment What You Don’t Know with filmmaker Lulu Wang, which was an inspiration for Golden Globe-winner The Farewell. Drumming also won a Peabody Award for his work as an editor on the S-Town podcast.

“Five years ago, with the release of Serial, we...

Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell” is the most exciting hit movie of the summer, but its success wasn’t preordained. A24 acquired the movie out of Sundance, following raves for the complex look at an Asian American experience through the lens of a woman grappling with dueling cultural identities. When it opened in limited release July 12, it beat out “Avengers: Endgame” for the year’s biggest per-theater average. And it almost didn’t happen. For Wang, the fragmented experience facing her movie’s central character mirrored the filmmaker’s multi-year experience attempting to make “The Farewell,” and it only came together once she had all but given up on it.

There were many disheartening encounters with American financiers as she pitched the premise: a young woman’s family visits her ailing Chinese grandmother while keeping the matriarch in the dark about her illness. Many suggested that Wang introduce a prominent white character into the narrative,...

Lulu Wang was in Berlin in 2013, editing her first film, when she got the call: Her grandmother in China, who’d briefly taken her in when her parents fled the country in 1989, was terminally ill. The family, however, told “Nai Nai” that she was just fine, that the doctor had given her a clean bill of health. Then Wang’s relatives fast-tracked a cousin’s planned wedding as an excuse for everyone to visit the elderly matriarch one last time. The only caveat: Nobody could tell Nai Nai the truth.

I love it when I stumble upon "ghosts of filmmakers' pasts" (so to speak); it's often fun to watch what they've done in the past, even if only to see how far they've come. We all start somewhere right? Here's a short film from no later than 2010, directed by Neil Drumming (you'll recall his feature film debut, "Big Words" was released by Affrm last year), titled "The Romantic," which, by the way, stars one of his "Big Words" leads, none other than Mr Gbenga Akinnagbe, who's gone on to even bigger and better things (although, at the time the short was made, he'd already made a name for himself as Chris Partlow on "The Wire," a year or two earlier. You can currently see him as a regular...

Affrm's Array Releasing has announced a Tuesday, May 20 double-feature iTunes release of 2 recent pick-ups that enjoyed theatrical releases last year: Neil Drumming's dramedy, Big Words and Storm Saulter's romantic drama, Better Mu's Com. Drumming's lauded Slamdance 2013 Official Selection enjoyed an international tour last year, that saw it released theatrically in the USA, followed by UK and Sierra Leone playdates. The Brooklyn-set Big Words centers on members of a once-promising hip-hop group, now in their late 30's, struggling with regret, disappointment and change, set against the backdrop of Election Night, 2008 - when Barack Obama was...

Renaissance man Gbenga Akinnagbe has been somewhat quietly building a production empire of his own, attached in some capacity to two feature film projects that made their debuts in Park City last year (acting in, and co-producing Neil Drumming's feature film directorial debut titled Big Words - at Slamdance; and producing Shaka King's Newlyweeds - at Sundance, both in 2013). He also stars in and co-produced Jono Oliver's acclaimed drama Home - another film we've covered quite a bit on this blog over the last 12 months, which will be out next month, after a successful film festival circuit journey. In addition to producing and acting in films in this country (the...

Affrm + Array Releasing have announced the Netflix streaming release of Neil Drumming's crowd-pleasing, nostalgic dramedy, Big Words, starting today, January 6, 2014.Drumming's lauded Slamdance 2013 Official Selection enjoyed an international tour last year, that saw it released theatrically in the USA, followed by UK and Sierra Leone playdates. The Brooklyn-set Big Words centers on members of a once-promising hip-hop group, now in their late 30's, struggling with regret, disappointment and change, set against the backdrop of Election Night, 2008 - when Barack Obama was elected. The film stars Dorian Missick, Yaya Alafia, Gbenga...

Amazon recently announced itself as a major player in the premium web video space with the release of Alpha House, its first original series. The Garry Trudeau creation earned reviews resembling those received by House of Cards, and it saw strong viewership numbers over its debut weekend. One week later, Amazon debuted its second original, Betas, and the early reviews lead us to believe it has much less of a chance to become a groundbreaking hit. According to the critical consensus, Betas is hot-and-cold, filled with stock characters, and marked by overly-stylized dialogue. Most critics have agreed that Betas tries too hard to cater to its young crowd, filling its show with pithy references to buzzy tech brands like Snapchat and Grindr. "Basically, this show is packed with a Diablo Cody-level of cute pop culture references," wrote Jean Bentley in Mashable, "but most of the time it just doesn't...

Affrm will open Neil Drumming's lauded Slamdance 2013 Official Selection Big Words, in the UK, at Stratford East Picture House on Bank Holiday Monday, August 26, with marketing veteran Simone Bresi-Ando, and The New Black organization presenting exclusively. “Affrm’s mission is to celebrate bold voices in black filmmaking, and we're eager to offer some of the finest films by black directors to UK audiences,” explained Affrm Managing Director Tilane Jones. “We believe the combination of Simone Bresi-Ando as our UK marketing lead on this project, coupled with the film expertise of The New Black as the organizational presenter, will solidify the success of...

As expected, after New York City and Los Angeles openings last weekend, Affrm's multi-platform distribution label Array will continue to expand Neil Drumming's Slamdance 2013 Official Selection Big Words, over the next month, starting tonight, July 22, in Atlanta, Ga, at Georgia Pacific Auditorium. What was likely not expected was that the expansion would include international playdates (certainly not so soon). In addition to Stateside cities like the aforementioned Atlanta, as well as Washington DC, Philadelphia, Birmingham, Seattle, Houston, Gary (In), Charlotte (Nc), Dayton (Oh), and Bloomington (In), Big Words is also now...

Unfortunately, none of them is opening wide enough to reach every single one of you, but if those of you who are lucky enough to have any of these films open at a theater near you do your job, and fill the seats, each has the potential to travel even further.  Although two of them are already schedule to expand into wider release in successive weeks, anyway.Affrm's multi-platform distribution label Array will open Neil Drumming's Slamdance 2013 Official Selection dramedy Big Words, today, Friday, July 19, in New York City and Los Angeles, which will be followed by playdates during successive weeks, via Affrm...

Affrm's multi-platform distribution label Array will open Neil Drumming's Slamdance 2013 Official Selection dramedy Big Words, this Friday, July 19, in New York City and Los Angeles, which will be followed by playdates during successive weeks, via Affrm partners: Imagenation, Urbanworld Film Festival, BronzeLens Film Festival, ReelBlack Film Series, Langston Hughes Film Festival, Howard University’s Parallel Film Collective and Houston Museum of African-American Culture. The Brooklyn-set Big Words centers on members of a once-promising hip-hop group, now in their late 30's,...

"Everybody's on that rap-mogul shit, right now," says John (Dorian Missick), a middle-aged It guy who went by the moniker Big Words in the '90s, during the golden age of hip-hop. He and his group Dlp were the next big things, influenced by De La Soul and battling their label to protect the integrity of their music. Now scattered in different directions, living wildly different lives (one of the group is out of the closet), and not having spoken in years, the trio is reunited by fate on the night of the 2008 presidential election, as Barack Obama is set to make history. Writer-director Neil Drumming's dialogue-driven feature is exasperating because it comes so close to being excellent. Full of ideas on art, politics, relationships, and the construction of identity, it's that rare film i...

Premiering at Slamdance 2013 in January, Neil Drumming’s feature film debut Big Words has been one of our most anticipated black indie films of the year, and that anticipation is well deserved. Drumming is a former staff writer and editor at Entertainment Weekly whose sole film credit prior to Words is the short film Hi Res, which stars Jevon McFerrin and Nadia Kiyatkina. The narrative takes place in the backdrop of the 2008 election. Although it’s barely a backdrop, it further added significance to the film’s underlying theme of change in these characters’ lives. While watching the film I kept wishing it had premiered at Sundance instead. It’s one of those films that...

Set on the night of the historic 2008 Presidential election, Big Words follows three friends who were once members of a promising hip-hop group and are now dealing with the challenges of being in their late 30s.  As the indie drama nears its July 19 release through Affrm's Array label, I spoke with writer-director Neil Drumming about his intentions with the movie, his influences, and his outlook on filmmaking. Jt: Your film is like a coming-of-age tale for adults, told through the lens of hip-hop. Where'd the story come from?Nd: I'm a hip-hop head, I grew up with it. So I've always loved the music.Jt: Did you rap growing up?Nd: Yeah, I still write the occasional rhyme. In college...

Movies about African American experiences have always been in the minority, but this year's slate of potential Oscar contenders provide a startling counter-example: From the newly released police violence drama "Fruitvale Station" to Lee Daniels' upcoming "The Butler," Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" and "Black Nativity," there's a vast array of black movies with a lot on their minds and the potential to dominate national conversations. Despite the implicit progressiveness of that shift, it allows for a greater issue that afflicts moviegoing at large: The big ideas squash the more human ones. If the marketplace is relatively dense with black cinema, not everything can receive equal scrutiny, so the fairly marginal release on Friday of Neil Drumming's enjoyable character piece "Big Words" positions it as the underdog. While not perfect, its restrained approach makes for ideal counter-programming in which message-mongering takes backseat. First time writer-director and former.

Set on the night of the historic 2008 Presidential election, Big Words follows three friends who were once members of a promising hip-hop group and are now dealing with the challenges of being in their late 30s.  As the indie drama nears its July 19 release through Affrm's Array label, I spoke with writer-director Neil Drumming about his intentions with the movie, his influences, and his outlook on filmmaking. Jt: Your film is like a coming-of-age tale for adults, told through the lens of hip-hop. Where'd the story come from?Nd: I'm a hip-hop head, I grew up with it. So I've always loved the music.Jt: Did you rap growing up?Nd: Yeah, I still write the occasional rhyme. In college...

Premiering at Slamdance 2013 in January, Neil Drumming’s feature film debut Big Words has been one of our most anticipated black indie films of the year, and that anticipation is well deserved. Drumming is a former staff writer and editor at Entertainment Weekly whose sole film credit prior to Words is the short film Hi Res, which stars Jevon McFerrin and Nadia Kiyatkina. The narrative takes place in the backdrop of the 2008 election. Although it’s barely a backdrop, it further added significance to the film’s underlying theme of change in these characters’ lives. While watching the film I kept wishing it had premiered at Sundance instead. It’s one of those films that...

Affrm's multi-platform distribution label Array has revealed what it's calling The 'Big Words' Tour - a summer screening schedule for Neil Drumming's Slamdance 2013 Official Selection dramedy Big Words, which stars Dorian Missick, Yaya Alafia, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Darien Sills-Evans, Zachary Booth and Jean Grae.  Following its Frameline Film Festival screenings this weekend, the film will make its commercial theatrical debut in New York City and Los Angeles on July 19, which will be followed by playdates via Affrm partners: Imagenation, Urbanworld Film Festival, BronzeLens Film Festival, ReelBlack Film Series, Langston...

An official selection in the 2013 Slamdance, New Voices in Black Cinema, and Frameline Film Festivals, Big Words tells the story of three former rap group members finding themselves in a late-thirties crisis. The film, written and directed by former Entertainment Weekly writer Neil Drumming and starring Dorian Missick, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Darien Sills-Evans, and Yaya Alafia (formerly Yaya DeCosta), is set during the night of the 2008 presidential election.

Big Words comes out on July 19, but get a taste with an exclusive trailer right here:

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Neil Drumming’s ‘Big Words’ finds distribution label...

Affrm's multi-platform distribution label Array has revealed what it's calling The 'Big Words' Tour - a summer screening schedule for Neil Drumming's Slamdance 2013 Official Selection dramedy Big Words, which stars Dorian Missick, Yaya Alafia, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Darien Sills-Evans, Zachary Booth and Jean Grae.  Following its Frameline Film Festival screenings this weekend, the film will make its commercial theatrical debut in New York City and Los Angeles on July 19, which will be followed by playdates via Affrm partners: Imagenation, Urbanworld Film Festival, BronzeLens Film Festival, ReelBlack Film Series, Langston...

The illustrious Black Film Center/Archive (Bfc/A) at Indiana University will kick off its fall 2013 program with a 7-film series, featuring the work of Ava DuVernay and the distribution company she spearheads, aka Affrm. Included in the lineup are DuVernay-directed dramas and documentaries, I Will Follow, Middle Of Nowhere, My Mic Sounds Nice: A Truth About Women in Hip-hop and her upcoming contribution to Espn's Nine For IX series, Venus Vs, amongst other titles. Non-DuVernay-directed titles that complete the 7-film series include Affrm releases Better Mus’ Come, directed by Storm Saulter, and Neil Drumming’s Big Words, the company's next release, which will...

Affrm's multi-platform distribution label Array has announced that it will release Neil Drumming's indie dramedy charmer Big Words in New York City and Los Angeles on July 19, which will be followed by a theatrical tour via Affrm partners: Imagenation, Urbanworld Film Festival, BronzeLens Film Festival, ReelBlack Film Series, Langston Hughes Film Festival, Howard University’s Parallel Film Collective and Houston Museum of African-American Culture. The announcement comes just over a month after the distribution house acquired all Us distribution rights to the Slamdance 2013 Official Selection. The Brooklyn-set Big Words centers on members of a...

Array, the distribution label of the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement (Affrm), has acquired the 2013 Slamdance film Big Words. Written, directed, and produced by former Entertainment Weekly writer Neil Drumming, the movie tells the story of three former members of a hip-hop group who run into each other on the eve of President Obama’s election.

”Neil has created a poignant study of black masculinity and friendship set against the beauty of hip hop and the community it can foster,” said Array’s Managing Director Tilane Jones in a press release. Southland’s Dorian Missick stars along with America’s...

The African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement's (Affrm) multi platform label, Array, has announced "Big Words" as their sixth acquisition.  The film was a Slamdance festival favorite and is the first feature for Neil Drumming, who is a former Entertainment Weekly writer. "Big Words" centers around a group of friends who formed a hip-hop crew in their youth but separated over time and come together again on the eve of Obama's election. The crew is made up of John (Dorrian Missick), James (Gbenga Akinnagbe) and DJ Malik (Darien Sills-Evans). John used to be known as Big Words but is now a working class guy who left behind his days of rapping and while James used to rap about getting girls, he is now a publicist living with his boyfriend.  DJ Malik is the only one still involved in music but he reminisces about the groups former hey-day.  When the group reunites...

I'm glad that Neil Drumming's indie dramedy charmer Big Words isn't an orphan any longer, with Array, the multi-platform distribution label of Affrm (the African American Film Festival Releasing Movement), announcing today that it's acquired all Us distribution rights to the Slamdance 2013 Official Selection, in a deal negotiated by Gordon Bobb of Del, Shaw, Moonves, Tanaka, Finkelstein & Lezcano on behalf of Affrm, with producer Matthew Keene Smith.  The Brooklyn-set Big Words centers on members of a once-promising hip-hop group, now in their late 30's, struggling with regret, disappointment and change, set against the backdrop of Election Night, 2008...

Renaissance man Gbenga Akinnagbe is attached in some capacity to two feature film projects that made their debuts in Park City last month (acting in Neil Drumming's feature film directorial debut titled Big Words - at Slamdance; and producing Shaka King's Newlyweeds - at Sundance). It may not be as widely known that, last year, he also headed *home* to Nigeria, to wear both hats - starring in and producing a crime drama titled Render to Caesar, which received financial backing from former banker Desmond Ovbiagele. A brief description of the project, which is being directed by Onyekachi “Lucky” Ejim, reads: Caesar revolves around two detectives...

Big Words is the feature debut of writer/director Neil Drumming, former editor and music reviewer at Entertainment Weekly.The film follows the disparate storylines of James, John and Malik–three 30-something black men that used to constitute the hip-hop group D.L.P. (“Down Low Poets”). The triad has had little contact over the decade-plus since they split and each of them struggles with their sense of identity and regrets, struggling to look forward on the otherwise wildly hopeful night of Barack Obama’s inaugural election in 2008. Over the course of Big Words, we gradually learn piece-by-piece what drives James, John and Malik, what …...

It's not a full trailer, but here's a first preview/teaser of Neil Drumming's feature film directorial debut titled Big Words - a film that's set to make its New York premiere at the 3rd annual New Voices In Black Cinema Festival, presented by BAMcinématek and ActNow Foundation, which runs from February 15 - 18, at Bam Rose Cinemas. The film is among 10 New York premieres that'll screen at the festival. The Brooklyn-set Big Words centers on members of a once-promising hip-hop group, now in their late 30's, struggling with regret, disappointment, and change, set against the backdrop of Election...

The 3rd annual New Voices in Black Cinema, presented by Brooklyn-based ActNow Foundation in partnership with venue host BAMcinematek, takes place starting next Friday at February 15th through February 18th (President’s Day). With 10 New York premieres including Friday night opening film, Neil Drumming’s Slamdance Film Festival hit Big Words with Dorian Missick and Yaya Alafia (all of who will be in attendance),the surreal Alain Gomis directed-Saul Williams and Aissa Maiga starring Aujourd’Hui (Tey), Mischa Webley’s action thriller The Kill Hole, starring Chadwick Boseman, star of the upcoming Jackie Robinson biopic 42, and the Brooklyn premieres of the...

Renaissance man Gbenga Akinnagbe is attached in some capacity to two feature film projects making their debuts in Park City over the weekend (acting in Neil Drumming's feature film directorial debut titled Big Words - at Slamdance; and producing Shaka King's Newlyweeds - at Sundance). He'll now be heading *home* to Nigeria to wear both hats - starring in and producing a crime drama titled Render to Caesar, which THR says is currently in production, with financial backing from former banker Desmond Ovbiagele, although no word on exact budget yet. A brief description of the project, which is being directed by Onyekachi...

Premiering at Slamdance 2013 in Utah this past Thursday, Neil Drumming’s feature film debut Big Words has been one of our most anticipated films of the fest’s lineup, and that anticipation is well deserved. Drumming, a black man by the way, is a former staff writer and editor at Entertainment Weekly whose sole film credit prior to Words is the short film Hi Res, which stars Jevon McFerrin and Nadia Kiyatkina. The narrative takes place in the backdrop of the 2008 election. Although it’s barely a backdrop, it further added significance to the film’s underlying theme of change in these characters’ lives. While watching the film I kept wishing...

Here's a first poster for Neil Drumming's feature film directorial debut titled Big Words - a film that's set to make its world premiere at the 2013 Slamdance Film Festival this month, in Park City, Ut. The Brooklyn-set film film centers on members of a once-promising hip-hop group, now in their late 30's, struggling with regret, disappointment, and change, set against the backdrop of Election Night 2008 - when Obama was elected. Joining Dorian Missick in front of the camera are Yaya Alafia, Gbenga Akinnagbe and Darien Sills-Evans. No trailer yet, but once one surfaces, I'm sure we'll have it for...

Here's your first official look at Dorian Missick in Neil Drumming's feature film directorial debut titled Big Words - a film that's set to make its world premiere at the 2013 Slamdance Film Festival next month, in Park City, Ut. The Brooklyn-set film film centers on members of a once-promising hip-hop group, now in their late 30's, struggling with regret, disappointment, and change, set against the backdrop of Election Night 2008 - when Obama was elected. Joining Missick in front of the camera are Yaya Alafia, Gbenga Akinnagbe and Darien Sills-Evans. It's one of a handful of upcoming films we're most...

Congrats to Neil Drumming and his Big Words (a film I actually expected to see in Sundance's lineup), and all the other filmmakers whose films made the cut! The 2013 Slamdance Film Festival will showcase 22 feature-length competition films – 12 Narrative Films and 10 Documentary Films, including 13 World Premieres and 7 Us Premieres, from over 5,000 submissions this year. The 2013 Slamdance Film Festival will take place January 18 – 24, 2013 in Park City, Utah, at the Treasure Mountain Inn: 255 Main Street, Park City, Ut 84060. All Access, Industry, Locals, and Student Festival Passes are available now online, and individual tickets will be available...

Dorian Missick is a busy, busy man. All good! Missick has landed a recurring role in a comedy pilot for the USA Network titled Paging Dr. Freed, which centers on gynecologist brothers, the Freeds brothers (played by Kyle Howard and Joel David Moore), who inherit their father’s successful medical practice, while having to deal with their meddling mother (played by Annie Potts). Missick will play an anesthesiologist and friend of the Freed brothers who attended medical school with them. The Southland co-star can next be seen in indie features from Neil Drumming (Big Words) and Charles Murray (Things Never Said). He's also attached to...