by Keidra Chaney
Any show that bills itself as a “TV Show for fangirls and pop culture junkie”s is sure to get our attention here at TLF, and that’s what the webseries-in-progress Cowl Girl did a couple of weeks ago. The producers of Cowl Girl describe the show as “a quirky, comic inspired sitcom that revolves around one fangirl’s mission to complete her classic Star Trek villain display and overcome her agoraphobia in order to attend San Diego Comic Con …” and that’s pretty much all they had to say to get me excited. I chatted with cast members Yunuen Pardo and Carlo Lorenzo Garcia about the show, their Indiegogo campaign, and representation in fandom.
How did you (Carlo and Yun) join the cast?
We participated in a national reading series called 30/30 and when we read Cowl Girl by Anna Capunay, we really fell in love with the character of Cowl Girl and wanted to expand upon the story in an episodic format and asked Anna to help make it with us. Anna really supported the idea and now we are in full force pre-production mode on the pilot episode! We’ve joined the cast as actors/producers.
Cowl Girl is is based on a stage play. Were you in the original play? Are there any major differences between the play’s focus/story and the show?
When we did the 30/30 reading, Yunuen played the title character of Cowl Girl and Carlo directed the reading. In the play, we only see 3 of the characters in the story, Cowl Girl, her buddy Jason, and Alex. With an episodic format, we are able to see more of the characters in her world, and add some additional people to help move the story along. There are some exciting new characters in the TV pilot that are not in the play and that’s the most fun part for us is building out Cowl Girl’s world and enriching the story in that way.
As a geek girl of color, I am excited to see your focus on bringing Latino characters on the screen in a non-stereotypical way. (And of course, I love the focus on fangirls). I’d love to see a show with this kind of diversity on network or cable TV, but can’t see that happening any time soon. Do you think online TV (Amazon/Netflix) is a better venue for TV producers/writers to launch new/diverse ideas these days?
Things are starting to change but slowly, we are going to push the pilot to as many different distribution channels as possible, because it is a unique experience that many can relate to. Being a show that sees the geek-o-sphere from the female perspective is very important, we’ve met so many fan girls along the way so far, that only encourages us more to produce this show. There is definitely a lot of freedom and flexibility in the online streaming world, and we would welcome the idea of becoming a Hulu or Netflix original series because this show would flourish in that format.
On a semi-related note, Awkward Black Girl creator Issa Rae once said that her show was inspired by “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Seinfeld”. Do you have a similar TV show inspiration?
We are inspired by a lot of different TV shows and movies, I like to think of Cowl Girl as a mix of The Big Bang Theory meets New Girl meets Kick Ass. I adore the character of Hit Girl in Kick Ass and would love to bring that type of energy to Cowl Girl.
What can TLF readers do to help spread the word among their networks in the next couple of weeks of your fundraising campaign? Are there other ways for people to contribute? (joining the crew, marketing, etc.)
We have 10 days left on the IndieGoGo campaign, sharing the link would be awesome, if you can make a contribution, even more awesome. We are also looking for in-kind donations, so if you have any action figures or memorabilia that you want to donate for set dressing or if you have a restaurant that would like to cater the food for a day on-set to feed the actors/crew that would be amazing, if you want to submit for a crew position, drop us a line at cowlgirl2@gmail.com We could use as many hands as possible, so if you have a special skill you’d like to contribute let us know. Thanks!