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New Metric Media strikes exclusive multi-year first-look deal with creative talent Sasha Leigh Henry

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From a media release:

Award-winning producer New Metric Media has signed a multi-year first-look deal with rising creative talent Sasha Leigh Henry to produce new original projects across multiple mediums including television, film and theatre.

“We’re delighted to expand on our collaboration with Sasha, an exceptionally talented and visionary creator,” commented Mark Montefiore, Founder and CEO, New Metric Media.  “Supporting unique and gifted voices like Sasha’s is at the core of our mission, and we’re excited to partner with her in bringing more compelling stories to life.”

New Metric Media previously partnered with Sasha who created the Crave Original series Bria Mack Gets a Life, which recently won Best Comedy Series at the Canadian Screen Awards. The series received five Canadian Screen Award nominations, including Best Writing. In addition, the series garnered critical acclaim, with NOW stating it as “a comedy phenomenon where Black girl magic meets the harsh reality of everyday life” and Shifter praising it as “funny, well-written and pretty much perfect.”

“Working with New Metric to bring Bria Mack to life was an incredibly bonding experience,” added Sasha Leigh Henry.  “As creative collaborators, I think we are a good match, and share a similar appetite for experimenting and shaking things up with the kind of comedic stories we want to tell and the way we put them out into the world. I’m elated to be continuing our partnership. If Bria Mack Gets A Life was just the beginning, I can only imagine what comes next.”

Recognized by The Hollywood Reporter as a rising Canadian talent to watch, Sasha Leigh Henry is a writer, director and producer. She was also highlighted as Playback and Variety’s 10 to Watch for 2022. Sasha’s film Sinking Ship, penned by her creative partner Tania Thompson, debuted at TIFF 2020 and was the winner of the 2021 Vimeo Staff Pick Award at Aspen Shortsfest. Her film Bitches Love Brunch screened at festivals internationally before being acquired by CBC Gem. As a producer, Sasha has helped bring numerous films to screen including Randall Okita’s Canadian Screen Award winner The Lockpicker, Kelly Fyffe-Marshall’s award-winning short film Black Bodies and Fyffe-Marshall’s debut feature When Morning Comes, which premiered at TIFF 2022. Bria Mack Gets A Life is Sasha’s most recent debut as series creator and showrunner. A frequent panelist and speaker, Sasha is also an alumni of POV 3rd Street, Black Women Film!, 2020’s TIFF Filmmaker Lab, a TIFF Netflix Talent Accelerator Fellow, and is Chair of the Board of the Reelworld Film Festival.

New Metric Media is a comedy-focused entertainment studio that aggregates and amplifies premiere global comedy brands through a vertically integrated, franchise-building eco-system across Content Creation, Talent Development & IP, Distribution, Live Entertainment and Merchandise and Licensing. With a growing global demand for comedy on and off screen, New Metric Media is committed to partnering with top tier talent across all mediums to build comedy brands to a scale that rivals major entertainment franchises.  Most recently, the company partnered with Crave on an exclusive overall content deal with award-winning creator Jared Keeso for all new series and to expand the world of popular hit series, Letterkenny.

About New Metric Media

Based in Toronto, New Metric Media is an award-winning independent entertainment studio specializing in building comedy brands across tv production, live entertainment, distribution, merchandising and licensing. Recipient of Playback’s 2022 Production Company of the Year award and the Banff World Media Festival’s 2018 Innovative Producer Award, the company’s slate of programming includes the hit Crave/Hulu original comedy Letterkenny, the Crave/Hulu Letterkenny spinoff series Shoresy, the CTV/CW/Roku half-hour comedy series Children Ruin Everything, as well as the new half-hour Crave comedy series Bria Mack Gets A Life.

New Metric Media is recognized as a leader in 360 degree brand marketing and its success with Letterkenny off-screen extensions, including beer, collectible merchandise and Letterkenny LIVE!, a sold-out North American theatre tour featuring the stars of the series.

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Bria Mack Gets a Life

Links: Bria Mack Gets a Life, Season 1

From Bill Brioux of Brioux.tv:

Link: Preview: There’s plenty to love with Bria Mack Gets a Life
Credit creator-director-writer Sasha Leigh Henry with busting down a stereotypical wall or two with Bria Mack. Like her main character, Henry is a Black Canadian who survived a University of Waterloo education. Her credits include a stint as story editor on Workin’ Moms as well as accolades at the Toronto International Film Festival for an earlier incarnation of Bria Mack. Continue reading.

From Sabina Wex of CBC Arts:

Link: Bria Mack Gets a Life turns the awkwardness of young adulthood into comedy gold
“It felt like the female ensemble, female Black comedy lead was missing. I thought we could use that in Canada. I had this idea of a woman who, on her first day on the job, experiences someone trying to touch her hair. Instead of seeing the shitty, poorly handled HR meeting, where nothing really happens, what if we go with her and her brain to where she actually wants to go and how she would want to react? And we get to play that out.” Continue reading.

From Elisabetta Bianchini of Yahoo! News:

Link: ‘Bria Mack Gets A Life’ doesn’t shy away from specifics, and will ‘up the ante’ for comedy
In a world with countless streaming TV shows at our fingertips, a series that actually stands out for being funny, compelling, with a truly entertaining script, is a big deal. For Canadians, that show is Bria Mack Gets A Life on Crave, created by Sasha Leigh Henry, starring Malaika Hennie-Hamadi and Hannan Younis. Continue reading.

From Courtney Small of That Shelf:

Link: Interview: Sasha Leigh Henry on Bria Mack Gets A Life
“It might be cheesy to say, but I don’t think I picked comedy, so much as comedy picked me. The things my family liked to watch when I was growing up, and resonated with, were often comedic.” Continue reading.

From Annemarie Cutruzzola of She Does The City:

Link: Bria Mack Gets a Life: A Chaotic New Comedy from Sasha Leigh Henry
Bria Mack Gets a Life is a show for the burnt-out post-secondary grads, for the cuspies (those straddling the line between Gen Z and Millenial) and for anyone who copes with microaggressions by daydreaming about the ultimate comeback. Continue reading.

From Kevin Bourne of Shifter:

Link: Bria Mack Gets a Life is funny, well-written and pretty much perfect
Since the success of Kim’s Convenience, some have wondered when Caribbean people would get a comedy series of our own. Well, that day is just around the corner with the upcoming Crave Original Series Bria Mack Gets A Life, a coming-of-age comedy about a young Black woman’s transition from college student to adulthood. Continue reading.

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Bria Mack Gets a Life

Fantastical new Crave original comedy series, Bria Mack Gets a Life premieres October 13

From a media release:

On the heels of its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, the Crave Original series BRIA MACK GETS A LIFE premieres on Crave on Friday, Oct. 13. The hysterical six-episode, half-hour comedy is the vision of creator and showrunner Sasha Leigh Henry, who was named one of Variety’s “10 Canadians to watch” in 2022 and is behind critically acclaimed short films Black Bodies and Sinking Ship. BRIA MACK GETS A LIFE follows a 25-year-old Black woman as she navigates adulthood in a predominantly white world, made all the more difficult, but also more tolerable, by Black Attack, her invisible hype girl.

Episodes 1-3 of BRIA MACK GET A LIFE drop on Friday, Oct. 13 with episodes 3-6 dropping on Friday, Oct. 20. The official trailer for the series is available HERE.

After seven long years in University, fresh graduate and newly minted valedictorian, Bria McFarlane (Malaika Hennie-Hamadi), moves back home to the suburbs ready to finally take a break. But when her mother Marie (Leslie Adlam) shares her plan to retire early – and soon – Bria must coordinate her life, friends, dating, a place to live, and most importantly, a job, to fund it all, before time runs out. With her hype girl and most-trusted imaginary confidant, Black Attack (Hannan Younis), by her side, the series follows the pair as they take on the world… one microaggression at a time.

Led by Hennie-Hamadi and Younis, the unfiltered comedy features a predominantly BIPOC cast including Adlam; Manuel Rodriguez-Saenz; Amalia Williamson; Marlee Sansom; Preeti Torul; Robert Bazzocchi; Nia Cummins; Robert Clarke; Femi Lawson; Shannon Jardine; Catherine De Sève; and Mark Forward. Over the course of the season, the series illustrates the varied ways navigating adulthood can manifest anxiety, especially for a young, clever, Black woman. Punctuated by inner monologues and fantasies, BRIA MACK GETS A LIFE acutely explores what it feels like to figure out who you want to be in a world too eager to tell you who you are.

On Thursday, Oct. 12, New Metric Media hosts the special event, BRIA MACK GETS A LIFE LIVE! at Comedy Bar in Toronto. The event features stand-up comedy, musical performances, and a screening of episode 1 and 2. For more information, please visit www.BriaMackGetsALife.tv.

BRIA MACK GETS A LIFE is produced by New Metric Media in association with Bell Media’s Crave with the participation of the Bell Fund. Executive producers are Sasha Leigh-Henry, Mark Montefiore, and Tania Thompson; Angelique Knights and Tamar Bird serve as producers; and directors are Sasha Leigh-Henry and Kelly Fyffe-Marshall.

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