‘Re-Friended’ Comedy Starring Franchesca Ramsey & Shamikah Martinez In Works At Fox From Vijal Patel And K&L Prods.

EXCLUSIVE: Fox has put in development Re-Friended, a half-hour multi-camera comedy from comedian Franchesca Ramsey (Decoded) and actress-writer-producer Shamikah Christina  Martinez, who are set to star, writer Vijal Patel (black-ish, The Middle), Kay Cannon and Laverne McKinnon’s K&L Productions and Sony Pictures Television, where K&L is under a first-look deal. The project is a co-production between Sony TV and Fox Entertainment.

Written by Ramsey and Martinez with Patel supervising, Re-Friended is based on an original idea from Ramsey and Martinez. It revolves around two childhood friends (Ramsey, Martinez) who stayed connected through the years via social media. When they become roommates as adults, they realize how much they don’t know each other at all, and have to “re-friend” over again and learn how to live with and love the un-curated versions of themselves.

Ramsey, Martinez and Patel executive produce with Cannon and McKinnon for K&L Productions.

Ramsey is the host of MTV’s popular online series Decoded with Franchesca Ramsey, which has run for seven seasons. She also developed and headline Comedy Central digital series Franchesca and Show. Her credits include writing and performing on Comedy Central’s Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, where she created the popular segment #HashItOut and the infamous original viral video “Sh*t White Girls Say…to Black Girls.” Her book Well That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes Of An Accidental Activist was published in 2018. She’s repped by Gersh, Imagine Artist Management and attorney Victoria Cook.

Martinez, who appeared on Franchesca and Show, most recently wrote on the reboot of Nickelodeon’s sketch show All That exec produced by Kenan Thompson. As an actress, she recurred on CBS’ Superior Donuts and guest starred on Murphy Brown. She previously developed at TruTV, co-writing, co-starring and executive producing the pilot Winks with Debbie Liebling producing. Martinez’s short form comedic music videos, which she also co-wrote and co-starred in, became a staple of truTV’s Late Night Snack block. Additionally, she served as executive producer of Awkwafina’s YouTube talk show, Tawk. She’s repped by Gersh and Artists First.

Patel is an Emmy-nominated writer/producer whose previous credits include Black-ish and The Middle. He’s currently a co-executive producer on ABC’s Schooled.

Kay Cannon and Laverne McKinnon co-founded K&L Prods. with the mission is to tell underserved and underdog stories from both a comedic and dramatic lens. The two met on the Netflix series Girlboss, where Cannon served as Creator/Showrunner and McKinnon was an Executive Producer.