CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS +
SHOW ELEMENTS
Structure. Style. Lens.
Each season is made up of episodes that represent one month in one year of our characters' lives and their most significant emotional journeys. The pilot will start at the end of a year on the day before New Year's Eve, then flashback to the months leading up to that day, ending our season one, on a climactic New Year's Eve.
The characters’ stories will be told in a highly cinematic, upbeat style—like the film Palm Springs and the works of director Sofia Coppola.
The lens will be an authentic point of view of BIPOC characters who grew up on the outside of the mainstream (like characters in The Big Sick, I May Destroy You, or Ramy) as people of color with a different ethnic makeup than the mainstream. They are not the token minority in a series, and their background and ethnicity are what make their humor, style, and approach to relationships and longing unique and compelling.
Music is built into the structure of our series. The main character, Sid, is assistant to a music supervisor and DJ at KCRW (LA’s indie radio station), helping him to create soundtracks and pick bands. Eventually, she will create something akin to Tiny Desk Concerts. We’ll get to see a band or performer cameo every episode, with an emphasis on covers of English songs in Chinese, Spanish, Twi or Hindi.
Beyond Surface
LOVEDby episodes are driven by longing and boundary-pushing sexual relationships, but there is much more boiling under the surface. Our characters are exploring the underlying idea of planning for one’s future—professionally and romantically. They’re doing so while challenging the status quo, experiencing racism and micro-aggressions, and resisting their families’ expectations and cultural upbringing while wondering how the person you love fits in with all of that! Because, spoiler alert, sometimes all of these things do not line up perfectly and you have to make some hard choices, especially if you are a person of color.
Themes, Questions, Conflicts—Oh, My.
Sanskrit has 96 words for Love (passionate, maternal, erotic, platonic, amorous...). That and the real-life relationships from Ayn’s relationship columns and memoir are the inspiration for our central theme. Our characters upturn the traditional definitions of love, sex and relationships, and through struggle, failure and a lot of sex (not all of it hot), accept that they can embrace others through a more fluid, less conventional experience.
The big questions we’ll explore:
Is the spectrum of love as wide as the spectrum of sexual orientation? Can you have a romantic relationship without sex? How do your family and your ethnicity define what paths you choose and how you love?
These are the conflicts our characters will grapple with:
Commitment. Jealousy. Fear. Prejudice. Family. Tradition. Sexual identity. Cultural Identity.
With an added layer or lens of ethnicity and culture, LOVEDby explores the popular themes and conflicts expressed with heart in the hit movies LA LA Land, Plus One, and The Big Sick.
Our Characters*
*characters and storylines will be adapted based on the ethnicity of actors cast.
Most photos are for illustration purposes only and do not imply commitment by actors.
SIDNEY, “SID,”
Sid is the Asian-Caucasian Carrie Bradshaw of the group, but with a style that is unique to her. Music is her thing. In a move that was unlike her, she dropped out of med school to take a low-paying job helping to produce a show at KCRW and make soundtracks for films. She is the glue that holds her friends and family together and is positioned in the series to shatter limiting beliefs around relationships.
WHEN IT COMES TO LOVE
When Sid’s longtime boyfriend, Jared, an up-and-coming singer-songwriter, questions his sexual orientation, she doesn’t abandon him. Instead, she defies convention and stands by his side to help him learn how to love men, while she learns how to better love herself.
Sid is a romantic at heart but she puts that aside to engage in boundary-pushing sex to help Jared explore, even when it freaks her out. However, things become more complicated when she has an unexpected and extraordinary night with a visiting music journalist from London named Ben and Jared falls in love with a man.
ETHNICITY
Because of her ethnic mix, she was raised straddling two cultures, unconsciously assimilating at every chance, dodging guys who have an Asian fetish and trying to not disappoint her Chinese** Tiger mother. She speaks English, Mandarin and Spanglish and as she’s thrust back into the dating world, she starts to question her sexual status quo. Has she only been attracted to white guys because they help her fit in? How do you fall in love with someone new when you’re still in love with someone old?
**Depending on casting, this may change to reflect another ethnicity or culture.
SID’S ARC
She wants to believe true love should be easy, but she needs to accept that love (and sex) is complicated. (Read more of her arc)
SID’S CENTRAL CONFLICTS
Self-doubt. Not feeling good enough. Trying to love and let go of a significant other who is attracted to men. Living up to the expectations her Asian mom and relatives put upon her. Standing up to her boss.
WHAT’S AT STAKE
Love. Friendships. Family. Self-esteem.
FLAWS
Hates having flaws. Parallel parks like she’s 92. Spouts random music facts when she's nervous. Cares too much about what people think of her.
MOST PLAYED SONG
Magic in the Air by Badly Drawn Boy.
FAVORITE LA NEIGHBORHOOD
Little Osaka, aka Japantown.
Sid helps produce the Tiny Desk Concerts for NPR at KCRW. Click on the video to see what those look like.
VICTORIA “Vee”
Victoria is Sid’s polished, perverted, cynical and secretive best friend, but she’s also fiercely loyal. She dresses to be the most noticed woman in a room, but that is a double-edged sword in her job as personal assistant to the art world’s hottest female painter and her wife, a film composer, who may have a thing for her. People judge her by her body (it's hard not to be distracted by it) and are always surprised to learn she has an intellectual side. She can compare and contrast the music of Kanye with Mozart, the art of Basquiat with Louise Bourgeois’.
WHEN IT COMES TO LOVE
She’s never been in love and secretly thinks maybe she’s not love material. She dates men (and women) who are basically the age her father was when he died but refuses to acknowledge this fact. She’ll end up having a very intimate and secretive relationship with Sid’s dad, who she turns to to cope with the loss of her own father. As she’s tempted to cross the line, she tries to keep it a secret from her best friend. Life will also catch sex-centric Victoria by surprise when she finds herself falling in love with an Asexual man who doesn’t need or want sex. This relationship dramatically changes her expectations for her life, as she comes to the realization that she, too, may be happier as an Asexual.
ETHNICITY
You can take the girl out of East LA, but can you take East LA out of the girl? Victoria grew up Catholic in a large extended Dominican-Mexican family, most of whom still live in the East LA neighborhood she grew up in and still speak only Spanish in their homes. Her dad died recently and her mother has come back into her life after abandoning her when she was five. Once in a girl gang, Vic feels out of place in her old world and her mom and old friends guilt her for being an uptight gringa.
VIC’S ARC
In her personal life she wants to feel desired, but after a lifetime of using sex in search of intimacy, she needs to explore what it means to be asexual and disentangle her identity and intimacy from sex. (Read more about her arc)
WHAT’S AT STAKE
Loss of identity. Loss of family. Loss of Sid’s friendship. Never having sex again.
VIC’S CENTRAL CONFLICTS
Her relationship with her mother. Grieving for her father. Her secret relationship with Sid’s father. Redefining her sexual identity.
FLAWS
Keeps too many secrets from the people who love her. Uses humor to mask pain. Has trouble standing up to her mother or her past.
MOST PLAYED SONGS
I’m on Fire cover by Cassandra Violet
FAVORITE LA NEIGHBORHOOD
Koreatown for its karaoke, food and nightlife.
NIKHIL
Nikhil is cynical and sarcastic and has known Sid since they were little kids and they would watch Bollywood movies together at the cinema while their parents worked long hours at their family’s respective ethnic restaurants. They still binge Bollywood movies when things have them down. He can pass for Latino or Italian and sometimes he pretends he is because it’s easier than being perceived as Muslim. Nikhil works with Sid at the radio station as a sound engineer and his side hustle involves recording strange audio requests for people.
WHEN IT COMES TO LOVE
Nikhil believes that either modern American women have expectations that are impossible to meet or they’re so jaded by Tinder that they can’t connect. So, he has settled on letting his Indian mother arrange his marriage. It's the path of least resistance and means no elusive, amorphous emotions to deal with. Of course, he does not count on the Mrs. Robinson-like love triangle caused by his attraction to his middle-aged Indian matchmaker and her daughter, Asha, who is one of his top matches. And, he'll be sideswiped by love for Himasa, one of his best friends, at some point during the show, which will be neither arranged nor easy.
ETHNICITY
Nikhil’s father is Pakistani -Muslim, his mother is from India and Hindu. The first question the matchmaker asks to determine his perfect match is, “What’s your religion?” This sets him on a journey simultaneously exploring what it means to be Muslim (no pork) or Hindu (no alcohol) or Agnostic (no faith) in America and how that influences his choices in women, sex and life.
HIS ARC
When it comes to love he wants the perfect marriage arranged for him. What he needs to realize is that the searching is the best part of the journey. (Read more about his arc)
CENTRAL CONFLICTS
Anti-Muslim sentiment. Being stereotyped. Living up to his parent’s strict cultural ideals. Straddling multiple cultures. Fear of being vulnerable.
WHAT’S AT STAKE
His relationship with his faith. His friendship with Himasa. His relationship with his family. True love.
FLAWS
Resists being vulnerable. Hides feelings behind humor and sarcasm. OCD about orderliness when he’s stressed.
MOST PLAYED SONG
This is America by Childish Gambino (click to play on Spotify)
FAVORITE LA NEIGHBORHOOD
Little Ethiopia
HIMASA
Himasa is a duck out of water in LA. She can’t drive and doesn’t trust the “just do it + no worries + glitter" SoCal culture. She is deeply artistic, and a person of few words, but when she does speak, she cuts through all bullshit and can make people see the pettiness of situations they might otherwise miss. She was raised in London as an asylum refugee from Ghana, then moved to America at the age of fourteen where she met Sid, Vic and Nikhil and they eventually formed a short-lived band they named The Others. She is a brilliant photographer who makes ends meet by shooting quinceañeras, and ethnic weddings. She is also a young woman trying to survive the grief of a dad, a once-promising doctor lost to addiction, and a mother trapped in depression who believes only prayer can heal her. The light of her life is her deaf five-year-old brother. She is fluent in Waali, Twi, French, English and sign language.
WHEN IT COMES TO LOVE
Himasa doesn’t have time for love which she considers one of life’s luxuries. She is still in survival mode with her displaced family, who has never quite fit into their new homeland. Himasa is wary of being seduced by the glitter of Los Angeles, but in the end, she'll fall in love (a hard-earned love) with the City and the person she least expects.
ETHNICITY
She is from Ghana, but because of the color of her skin she is often confused with African American Angelenos, and although she experiences racism and prejudice in a similar manner, she gets tired of people stereotyping her in the same way. Her immigrant experience and her cultural identity are vastly different. She is a practicing Muslim even though her mother is a converted evangelical Christian.
HIMASA’S ARC
She wants to be strong and hold her family together, but she needs to relieve herself of the guilt and pressure in order to pursue her true passions as an individual and an artist. (Read more about her arc)
CENTRAL CONFLICTS
Her relationship with her mother. Prejudice. Societal stereotypes and limiting beliefs toward young black women. Ghanian vs. Western culture.
WHAT’S AT STAKE
Guardianship of her little brother. Creating art amidst chaos. Having a family of her own one day. Loss of cultural identity.
FLAWS
Pessimist. Judgmental. A workaholic who doesn’t make enough time for friends.
MOST PLAYED SONG
La Mer by Charles Trenet because her father used to sing it to her. (click to play on Spotify)
FAVORITE LA NEIGHBORHOOD
The 800 stretch of La Cienega Blvd for its impresario, curio and unmarked art venues
THE LOVE INTERESTS
JARED
He's the ruggedly handsome up-and-coming Harry Styles-like musician exploring his attraction to men for the first time, encouraged by Sid.
WHEN IT COMES TO SEX
He’s only had sex with Sid and he’s closer to her than anybody in his life. He struggles with wanting to keep his relationship and intimacy with her while realizing his growing attraction to men.
HIS ARC
He wants to hold onto the comfort and love of Sid, but he needs to let her go. He’ll also have to let go of not wanting to disappoint his very traditional father.
ETHNICITY
His parents are fourth-generation Irish-American and are completely out of touch with their roots.
HIS CENTRAL CONFLICTS
Letting go of Sid. Fear of the unknown. Self-destructive behavior. Identity confusion.
FLAWS
Too honest. Hates change. Burns toast.
WHAT’S AT STAKE
Sexual identity. Loss of family. Losing Sid. Self-acceptance. True love.
MOST PLAYED SONG
Falling by Harry Styles (click to play on Spotify)
BEN
Ben is Sid's will they or won't they? love interest. He's eternally himself, with just a tad bit of bad-boy charm, and self-deprecating wit. He's also a cynical UK editor-at-large with Rolling Stone. He's interviewed everyone from Mick Jagger to St. Vincent, Bono to Beyonce and heads of state. He's credited for convincing Donald Glover to try the alter ego Childish Gambino as well as causing the demise of lesser bands based on his music reviews.
WHEN IT COMES TO LOVE
He's had his heart broken once. Enough to know he might not survive it a second time. Ben will fall for Sid, despite the fact that they have clashing musical tastes and she's entirely different than anyone he's ever been attracted to. But Ben’s love life is complicated. When his recent ex discovers she has a condition that is life-threatening, he decides to stay by her side to help her recover, even though he is madly in love with Sid.
ETHNICITY
When people ask about his ethnicity, he tells them Arsenal (the futbol team). He’s English through and through.
ARC
He wants to do the right thing by others when it comes to love and relationships. He needs to do the right thing by himself.
FLAWS
Quick-to-judge, music snob, the occasional cigarette.
MOST PLAYED SONG
In the Morning of the Magicians by The Flaming Lips (click to play on Spotify)
ANDERS
Anders is visiting the U.S. on a work visa from Sweden, and the first and last man that Jared will fall in love with. They’ll meet at a gay bar where Sid takes Jared to help him explore dating men. The language barrier is not the biggest complication. Anders is deaf but he defies stereotypes we have of people with hearing loss. He can play an acoustic guitar, and he is able to communicate via text and read lips.
WHEN IT COMES TO LOVE
Anders has been searching for someone who embodies the Swedish concept of Lagom (pronounced lar-gohm), a word meaning ‘just the right amount’. It’s also widely translated as ‘in moderation, in balance and perfect-simple.’ It’s an important concept and is applied to just about every aspect of life in Sweden from dress sense to work performance. Jared is the first person he’s met who fits the word Lagom.
ETHNICITY
Swedes are not generally known for their linguistic padding. One positive side to this is that they are often very concise. This takes some getting used to at first. Emails and texts in particular can be quite daunting, and so to the point, they can lack emotion.
ARC
He wants Jared to have a partner who can hear the music he so passionately creates. He needs to let go of the practical and embrace the parts of Jared’s musical journey that he can appreciate.
FLAWS
Too matter of fact, too concise. Finds some of Jared’s expectations of relationships antiquated.
MOST PLAYED SONG
Feeling Good* by Nina Simone by (click to play on Spotify). *He can feel songs with bass and good rhythm
SAI
Sai Manju is an art gallery owner that Victoria meets and falls for. However, just as she confesses she might be ready to settle down and commit to one person for the first time in her life, Sai confesses that he is a devoted asexual and does not want or need sex to be in a relationship.
WHEN IT COMES TO LOVE
Sai has had more healthy romantic relationships as an asexual, than when he was engaging in sex. Different asexual people experience their “ace” identities differently. Sai is interested in romantic relationships while his other “ace” friends are not; and whereas some asexual people are sex-averse and have a negative view of sex, Sai simply is not interested in sex but he does not have a negative view of it,
ETHNICITY
Sai was raised in the Tamil Nadu region in India and moved to the U.S. for med school. His parents raised him to be a doctor, but he fell in love with art and the lives of artists from an early age. He is still very connected to his Indian roots, but his father has disowned him because of his personal life choices.
ARC
He wants Victoria to fall in love with him and commit. He needs Victoria to understand him.
FLAWS
Sometimes his chivalrous nature can be patronizing. He’s unaware of how his natural charisma can mislead women and men.
MOST PLAYED SONG
Brimful of Asha by Cornershop by (click to play on Spotify).
SID’S FAMILY
