The Minds Behind 'Dreaming Whilst Black' on the Importance of Working with People Who Have ‘Lived the Experience'

In case you haven't heard, Dreaming Whilst Black is the newest staple you'll need to add to your streaming lineup this fall. Premiering on Paramount+ via Showtime, Dreaming Whilst Black is a six-part dramedy series co-created and co-written by 2022 BAFTA winner for emerging talent, Adjani Salmon—who also stars in the show. What started as an award-winning web series from Salmon is now a full-fledged presentation that has already received rave reviews in the U.K., and is heading towards a similar trajectory ahead of its U.S. debut. Co-produced by Indie Big Deal Films and set to premiere on September 8th, Dreaming Whilst Black follows an aspiring filmmaker named Kwabena (Salmon) as he pursues his dream—all while navigating a dead-end job, romance, finances, and just about anything else that comes with being a young adult trying to make things shake and bake.

Ahead of the premiere, we caught up with Dreaming Whilst Black's director Koby Adom, and producers Nicola Gregory and Dhanny Joshi to get a look at what went into crafting the show.

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"The process for this has always about been getting the best people and team involved," says Joshi as he describes what all went into putting this together. "We wanted people that were able to relate to this story and live the experience. Bringing on Koby and Nicola was easy for us because these are people who identify with this story. What was great about this process is that we've all lived through this journey—this isn't one of those shows when it comes to Black/minority stories where the people involved haven't lived and suffered through it. All of us have complained, suffered, gotten on with it chin up, and gotten through another day."

"Putting the show together has always been a team who has lived the experience," echoes Gregory who continues: "Just from a hiring perspective—hiring our directors, our HODs, always making sure these are people of color—Black and Asian specifically. Even when it came to our costumes and costume designers—we used over 60 Black-owned brands for costumes, our hair and makeup teams, and we specifically set out to find Black and Asian-owned hair and cosmetic companies. Even with our music—we set out to find Black British artists and artists from the diaspora to showcase. It's always been about that 360 package."

The director of the series, Koby Adom, agrees too, telling ONE37pm: "Just to springboard off what they said, production set the right foundation for getting the right people. Even with the actors, the action verbs are automatically understood, and the casting director was also a woman of color. As a director, having all of these people on board creating this thing made the process seamless in terms of achieving these performances from the actors based on how it's being scientifically observed."

Adom further notes that every level of this production is a meticulous one, and in our opinion, that includes the U.S. rollout for the series. Two episodes will premiere on September 8th, with two more following on September 15th, and the final two airing on the 22nd to round it out. Don't mind us, but we think this is important because it gives the opportunity for social media convo and viral moments (which this show is bound to create), and as Joshi points out, it gives "each episode time to breathe."

"Let's not binge it—there's a lot to take in with these episodes," he follows up. "Let it marinate a bit!" Fair enough, also as Gregory says, you may have to rewatch the episodes to fully understand it. "You'll probably have to watch a couple of times to get some of the easter eggs and nuggets in there. The themes are just so layered, and dropping two episodes at a time allows for conversation to happen."

I couldn't end our conversation without asking about Adjani Salmon, the brainchild of DREAMING WHILST BLACK, and his buddy Koby Adom couldn't wait to rave about him. "I know Adjani very well, because he's one of my closest friends," Kobe tell us adding: "We've always chatted on Facetime, and now we've actually had a reason to talk! He's the exec and the lead, so my first toss was basically saying 'Hey guys, I'm the director let's reestablish the boundaries!' I remember going over to his place the night before we started filming, and we were like, 'Wow we're actually working on a union project!'

"Working with Adjani is a joy because he knows who he trusts—you wouldn't be there if he didn't trust you. He gives you that space and respect. I had to remind him that he was the actor now, which is a big enough job in itself, and that we were here to take care of the rest. Working with him was dream because he did hand over the reigns, and so was working with these two. It was a dream—Adjani is brilliant. Great guy!"

"Adjani is very intentional," says Gregory as she adds on to what Adom just said. "This is his baby, starting as the web series, and he has lived the experience of a Black filmmaker. Everything in this is very intentional because Adjani knows what he wants to achieve. It was open, fluid, and there were a lot of late nights where everyone was just working harmoniously. Everybody was able to give feedback, and that is a testament to the openness Adjani has for working with people."

How about Dhanny Joshi? What did he have to say about his pal Adjani? "Adjani doesn't come with an ego. He's a visionary and leads by example. What's amazing about him is his personality and who he is as a human. He trusts Black/Brown people—you know we're trained to automatically over-prove ourselves and our skills to get accepted, and Adjani was somebody who regardless of how much experience you had would put the trust in you to deliver—then it's on you. It's not often you get that level of trust from a creative."

DREAMING WHILST BLACK premieres with two episodes on September 8th via Paramount+ With Showtime.

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