Film & Television
Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker is an award-winning Essence bestselling author, television creator, and screenwriter known for stories with bite, heart, sharp dialogue, and characters who rarely make the easy choice.
Her literary career includes The Ex Factor, which reached #1 on the Essence Best Sellers list, Role Play, and a wide-ranging body of work that has allowed her to explore love, power, ambition, betrayal, survival, and all the beautifully complicated places in between.
That same storytelling instinct carries into her work for film and television. Whitaker served as lead writer for Haus of Vicious, co-wrote the action thriller Imani, and created and co-wrote the BET+ holiday film Whatever It Takes, based on her novel of the same name.
Whether on the page or on the screen, Whitaker is drawn to stories that are emotional, messy, funny, provocative, and deeply human. She writes people as they are: flawed, complicated, sometimes reckless, and always worth watching.
Haus of Vicious
Starring Tami Roman, Haus of Vicious follows Chantel Vivian, a successful Los Angeles fashion mogul whose glamorous public life is far more complicated behind closed doors. As she navigates marriage, friendship, ambition, betrayal, and the pressures of maintaining her empire, Chantel is forced to confront the personal choices that threaten everything she has built.
Whatever it Takes
Four friends navigate love, motherhood, career pressures, family drama, and the beautifully imperfect mess of trying to hold it all together during the holidays.
At the center of Whatever It Takes is India, who unexpectedly falls for Devin, the son of her close friend Joan. What begins as a romance they try to keep hidden quickly becomes impossible to contain, forcing India to confront the fears, loyalties, and old wounds that have shaped the way she loves.
As friendships are tested and emotions rise, India has to decide whether protecting herself is worth losing something that may actually be real.
