The Oscar-winning Disney unit that Black Panther director and Oprah work with, where people of colour make the decisions

Its first project, Summer of Soul, with Questlove, won an Oscar and it works with the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Kerry Washington, Mahershala Ali and Ryan Coogler

Led by former AMC and Netflix executive Tara Duncan, Disney’s Onyx Collective is telling diverse stories at a time when Hollywood’s inclusivity is in question

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Questlove (second from left) with co-creators of Summer of Soul at the Oscars. Onyx, a Disney content arm which worked on the documentary, is helping tell diverse stories at a time when Hollywood’s inclusivity is in question. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 4:15am, 2 Feb 2023Updated: 1:30pm, 2 Feb 2023

When Oscar winner Mahershala Ali and his producing partners made the rounds last year, pitching an adaptation of Jean Hanff Korelitz’s bestselling novel The Plot, it sparked a bidding war.

The buzzy thriller about a failed author who engages in an “act of literary theft”, forever changing his life, is primed for success.

In addition to executive producing, Ali is starring in the series.

Two years earlier, another Korelitz novel was adapted into the acclaimed HBO series, The Undoing.

Tara Duncan, president of Onyx Collective, the company that won the bidding war for the rights to The Plot. Photo: Getty Images

“The response was overwhelming. Every single place we pitched made an offer,” says Layne Eskridge, president of POV Entertainment, who, along with Ali, brought the project to six networks and streaming platforms under her deal with TV production company Endeavor Content.

In the end, Onyx Collective – a relatively new brand focusing on creators of colour and under-represented voices – won out, ordering an eight-episode limited series to stream on Hulu.