It's Petty Drama (Ep 380 - The Hills/Xavier D'Leau)

My guest this week is producer Xavier D’Leau, who always knew that he needed, somehow, to make television shows that tell the stories of black queer lives. That wasn’t going to be easy, considering he went to school for social work, but he was determined — by day he helped people in crisis, and at night he and his friends worked on their own creative projects. That all came to a head one day when he found out he was about to be evicted, and made a tough choice about which career path he wanted to follow.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First, a reminder to head over to mattbaume.com to subscribe to my newsletter — this week I have a story about the movie Twilight and its connection to squids.

Also take a look at my YouTube channel for videos about film and TV history. And head over to my Patreon to support The Sewers of Paris and watch hours of bonus videos — I just posted one about the late-70s fiasco Supertrain, a show that nearly caused NBC to go bankrupt.