Julie Nolke, a viral YouTube star who comedically dissects the anxieties and foibles of Millennial woman, is creating a new series for the service.
“We’re making a show,” Nolke told Access Canada Summit, powered by The Hollywood Reporter, on Wednesday.
Titled Becky and Miranda, the series will be a dark comedy from veteran YouTube creator Nolke and co-star her sometime-collaborator Nicole Power (Kim’s Convenience). The first season of Becky and Miranda is set to start production shortly, with a treatment written for all seven episodes.
The gallows-humor series centers on two Millennial women who bond over their skepticism of — and possible Heathers-esque violence towards — men they’ve encountered. It builds on a number of viral sketches the pair already released online. (See one of them below.)
As YouTube surpasses its streaming rivals in Canada, the Google platform on Wednesday talked locally-driven creator shows at the summit.
Nicole Bell, Head of YouTube Canada, argued the digital video giant was investing in Canadian creative entrepreneurs looking to connect with audiences on their own terms. “They get to green light themselves and decide what their content will look like. They get to continue owning their IP, owning all their audience and going directly to that audience and getting feedback,” Bell said during the panel, which was moderated by THR‘s Steven Zeitchik.
YouTube Canada will unveil its full slate of new Canadian creators shows on Thursday at its YouTube Features showcase in Toronto. YouTube’s dominance in the Canadian TV market follows a splintering of the traditional cable bundle, allowing domestic TV viewers to increasingly pay for streaming content they covet, and with ads to lower subscription costs.
The YouTube Canada panel at Access Canada Summit discussed the convergence of traditional and digital media in the Canadian media space, with increased opportunities for local artists. “The cool thing I’ve noticed as a creator is there used to be quite segregated lanes to be a digital creator and an influencer, or to be a real actor. But those lines have totally blurred,” said Nolke, as fellow panelist and traditional-acting veteran Power agreed.
The Toronto Film Festival runs through to Sept. 20.
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