‘This Coulda Been An Email’ is a five-episode comedy web series that follows two HR secretaries doing everything but their jobs. Hilarity ensues when they’re forced to organize a diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative for their office. 

I first came up with the idea for this show back in 2013.

I was working at a boutique production company in Austin, Texas that was all women. In between production projects, I would have conversations about our work experiences and joke about the random topics (and microaggressions) that come up in an office setting. 

I never pursued developing it into a show because I was a pragmatic producer earlier in my career. I focused on staying “gainfully employed” over pursuing creative endeavors. Fast forward to 2019 I was wrapping up producing a show for PBS Digital Studios and Hardly Working popped back into my mind. 

I felt like I finally had the production experience to take on a narrative scripted project and frankly, I wanted to be “funny ha-ha” for once. The majority of my production career has focused on documentary-style storytelling, with a focus on social and cultural issues within the Black community. Then 2020 happened, and I realized that there truly is no time like the present.

So, I reached out to my friend and fellow collaborator Evelyn Ngugi, and at the beginning of 2021, we began developing Hardly Working (now This Coulda Been An Email) into the 5 written episodes we have now. 

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Throughout the process, I’ve documented working on this series on my YouTube Channel. Early in 2021, Evelyn and I wrote 3 pages to film a proof of concept for the characters.

I then used that to apply for filmmaking grants and crowdfunding through my Patreon. 

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From there, I was able to gain enough Patreon support to pay all of Evelyn’s writing fees to develop and co-write season 1 of the show together. We landed on writing 5 serial episodes, with a potential season 1 cliffhanger. 

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In June of 2021, I became an Adobe Creative Resident! 

The Adobe Creative Residency gives artists and creatives a salary so they can focus on a creative project for a full year. The goal of the residency is to help alleviate the stress of finding consistent income so that you can focus on getting your creative career to the next level. I pitched this show as part of my year-long residency project. 

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Because of the residency, I was able to allocate my own personal funds towards the project. We filmed the pilot in 5 days in Austin, Texas in November 2021. I self-funded the pilot through my production company StumbleWell for $20,000. We are now crowd-funding to move into production on episodes 2 – 5. 

Did y’all know production costs money?!

I know. Rude.

Thankfully, I was able to cover the cost of production for episode 1 and have now moved into post-production on the pilot.

It’ll be released in January of 2022, however, that’s just 1 of 5 total episodes. We need help to move into phase two of producing episodes 2 and 3. Your contribution will cover things like gear, crew costs, location rentals, production insurance, craft services, props & wardrobe, and so much more! 

If we do not hit our goal, we will utilize the funds provided to move forward one episode at a time. Each episode costs about $23,000 to make. 

If you can’t contribute to this production, that’s okay. Please send this campaign page to at least 5 people who you think can contribute and don’t forget to follow me on social media so you stay up to date on everything going on with the project. 

Risks & Challenges

We will endeavor to persevere with whatever funds are provided. That being said, we are also still very much in a panorama, in a pan dulce, in a pon de replay and as such there are still inherent risks to producing this project. 

For the pilot, my entire cast and crew were completely vaccinated. As we move into production on future episodes we will continue to monitor the situation (and its many variants) and when necessary we will pause production as well. I love storytelling, but filmmaking is inherently intimate. People often spend many hours in close and direct contact with each other. 

I love telling stories, but I will not risk the health and safety of our cast and crew to be funny ha-ha on Al Gore’s internet. Speaking of Cast and Crew….

Hallease Narvaez
Creator, Executive Producer, Co-writer, Actor

Hallease Clemons Narvaez (or known simply as Hallease) is a digital storyteller, and video producer currently based in Texas. She’s produced online content for Google, YouTube, Spanx, Target, and PBS Digital Studios through her creative production company, StumbleWell. When she’s not focused on producing content, she documents her chaotic good life through the YouTube channel Hallease.

Evelyn Ngugi
Co-writer, Actor

Evelyn Ngugi is an Austin, Texas-based comedy writer and Internet personality. She’s a 2021 graduate of YouTube’s Black Voices program and has collaborated with Complexly, PBS Digital Studios, HBO Max, and Google. Her supporters (affectionately called Internet Cousins) know her as Evelyn From The Internets via the YouTube channel she’s maintained over 10 years.

Grace Hathaway
Producer

Grace Hathaway is a video producer and creative strategist based in Texas. She got her start in indie film where she produced five features for an Austin-based company. She’s gone on to produce online and event content for clients including Walmart, Target, Sephora, the Texas Department of Health, and HPE. 

Maya Table
Director, Mentor

An incredibly skilled director, former editor and producer, Maya Table is a 2021 Adweek, Creative 100: Visionary Director and a 2021 Adobe Mentor. Directing credits include commercials and digital content for Google, SELF magazine, Lululemon, SoundCloud, PBS and Head & Shoulders. In 2018, she wrote and directed her first short documentary, “Reclaiming Nappy” which was featured on Facebook Watch and at Facebook’s 2019 Sundance Festival panel. Her next and first comedic short, “Dating App”, was featured by Issa Rae and FoxSoul.