TV Writer Damilare Sonoiki gets it right with new family comedy ‘African Time’ (WATCH)

May 17, 2017

The pilot episode of African Time has officially premiered, and it’s just as funny as we hoped it would be.

The comedic series is created, written and produced by former Black-ish writer Damilare Sonoiki. His initial teaser video went viral last year, spurred hot debate (the show had previously been called “African Booty Scratcher”), and left fans eagerly waiting for more.

African Time is the story of a family of Nigerian immigrants trying to raise their young son in America with Nigerian values.

The show stars Nigerian comedian Dulo Harris (@iamdulo) and Niki Guluchi as the parents and Dani Dare as their son, Ayodeji.

The first episode follows Ayodeji at school, where teachers often have difficulty pronouncing his name. The show proves to be extremely relatable to families of all kinds who might see themselves as a little different and hilariously depicts the struggles of a young immigrant just trying to succeed under the radar, while his parents want him to proudly own up to his heritage.

In an interview with OkayAfrica, Sonoiki explained the difficulty of pitching the show to a network. Many executives could not relate to the story and therefore believed that no one else would. However, he drew inspiration from Issa Rae’s success turning Awkward Black Girl into Insecure, a show heading into its second season on HBO.

Sonoiki said, “Recently, I realized, why spend all this energy trying to convince someone there is an audience for this when I already know there is an audience. It’s the same audience that drove this to viral success and that still reaches out to me asking what is going on with it.”

Sonoiki has been using the success of the teaser for African Time to crowd fund the show, and hopes that even with a small number of people contributing, it will have enough to evolve and expand.

Check out the full pilot episode below!