Teenagers (web series)

teenagers
Created by	Mathew Murray Sara Tamosauskas Dmitry Lopatin
Directed by	Mathew Murray
Starring	Chloe Rose Emmanuel Kabongo Raymond Ablack Allyson Pratt Dana Jeffrey Nykeem Provo Garrett Hnatiuk Shailene Garnett Daniel Kelly
Composer(s)	Spencer Creaghan
Country of origin	Canada
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	17
Production
Executive producer(s)	T.J. Scott
Editor(s)	Mathew Murray
Cinematography	Dmitry Lopatin
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	10-15 minutes
Production company(s)	Black Elephant Productions
External links
Official Twitter

Teenagers (often stylized as teenagers) is a Canadian web series written and directed by Mathew Murray and executive produced by T.J. Scott.

The series premiered on a dedicated YouTube channel on January 19, 2014. It features an ensemble cast that includes actress Chloe Rose as the main female protagonist.^[1] Emmanuel Kabongo stars as the central male protagonist and co-produced the first season alongside Murray.^[2] The series has been called "gritty" and "provocative,"^[3] and focuses on issues such as teen angst, racism, violence and sexuality.^[4]

As of December 2015, teenagers has been viewed over 5 million times online, amassing over 10,000 subscribers on YouTube.^[5]

Background

teenagers initially attracted media attention because its cast included several Degrassi stars, most notably Chloe Rose,^[4][6][7] who went on to be nominated for 'Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series' by the International Academy of Web Television for her role in the first season.^[8]

When interviewed about how the idea for the series came to fruition, Murray said:

We were inspired by the emotions we felt in High School, but we were also inspired by the classic 80’s teen films like “Breakfast Club” and “Pretty In Pink,” and wanted to showcase those themes in a modernistic way... So many of the teen shows out there are censored, corny, and simply not very realistic. In reality, teenagers deal with everything from drugs to sex, they swear, they curse…^[9]

The first season of the series was filmed in and around Toronto and Mississauga as an ACTRA Co-Op production on a shoe-string budget.^[9]

Release

Season One

Upon release, the series was voted #1 in the 'Indie Series Of The Week' poll by WeLoveSoaps.com users for the week of January 19 to 25, 2014.^[10] It received positive reviews from blogs and indie publications,^{[11][12][13][14][15]} and screened at various festivals around the world,^[16][17] winning awards at both the 2014 and 2015 Los Angeles Web Series Festival.^[18] Susie Stone of culturestarved.com wrote: "I saw humans. Shattering and trembling, but at times so quiet and beautifully real. I saw short spurts of what is really happening in the teen world. This series is evocative, sweet, daring, and scary."^[19]

The popular Canadian industry journal Playback published a piece on the series, writing: "the young creators of teenagers had to have plenty of luck, pluck, talent and grit to get this far. And that portends a Hollywood ending."^[20]

Season Two

For the second season of the series, award-winning director T.J. Scott served as executive producer.^[21][22] The first episode of the second season premiered on July 26, 2015,^[23] and has since been viewed over 1 million times.^[24] Narcity.com ranked the series #1 on its 2015 list of the '11 Toronto Based Web Series You Need To Check Out.'^[25]

In 2016, the series was nominated for several awards, including 'Best Ensemble' at the Indie Series Awards and 'Best Screenplay' at the Vancouver Web Series Festival.^[26][27]

All 17 episodes of the series are now available to stream on various platforms, including YouTube and Roku.

Awards & Nominations

References

External links

• Teenagers Official YouTube Channel
• Teenagers at the Internet Movie Database

See also