'Young Love': HBO Greenlights Animated Series Based On The Oscar-Winning Short Film 'Hair Love'
Matthew A. Cherry is expanding the Hair Love cinematic universe with a new HBO series.
The premium cable channel has ordered Young Love, a 12-episode animated series which will follow the characters introduced in Cherry's 2019 short film Hair Love, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Cherry will serve as the co-showrunner of this new series along with Carl Jones, whose previous credits include shows like The Boondocks and Black Dynamite. Check out the original short film and get details about the new show below.
Matthew A. Cherry, Sony Pictures Animation, and HBO are officially teaming up for a Hair Love TV show, a 2D animated series called Young Love. Here's how the show is described in an official HBO press release:
Hair Love centers around the relationship between an African-American father, his daughter Zuri, and the most daunting task a father could ever come across – doing his daughter's hair for the first time. The short resonated with people everywhere, especially fathers who found themselves in similar situations.
The all-new animated series Young Love expands on the family introduced in Hair Love. Filled with comedy and heart, Young Love is an honest look into the world of the Young family – including millennial parents Stephen and Angela, their daughter Zuri and her pet cat Rocky – as they juggle their careers, marriage, parenthood, social issues, and multi-generational dynamics all while striving to make a better life for themselves.
Issa Rae (Insecure) provided the voice of Angela in the short, but it's unclear if she'll be returning to reprise the role in the show or if that part will need to be recast.
"I am beyond excited to continue telling the story of Stephen, Angela and Zuri and further explore the family dynamics of a young Black millennial family we established in our short film Hair Love as an animated series," Cherry said. "Couldn't ask for better partners in Sony Pictures Animation and HBO Max in helping us get Young Love out to the world."
Cherry, a former NFL football player and current producer and executive at Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw Productions, has written and directed two feature films thus far and has another one – The Come-Up, a heist comedy starring Lil Rel Howery – on the way. He's also directed several episodes of television, including for shows like The Last O.G., Black-ish, Mixed-ish, and Peacock's upcoming reboot of Saved by the Bell.