At an exclusive screening in the Shadow and Act Theater at AfroTech World, the virtual audience got to witness Taste of The Mecca, a proof of concept miniseries that’s based on television pitch The Mecca, created by and starring Tevin Scott of RTS Vision and executive produced by Vondell J. Burns of Thankless Pro.

Created by Scott in their sophomore year at Howard University, The Mecca is based on Scott’s personal experiences and, as they described it, is “Insecure meets A Different World.” The series focuses on a prestigious fictional HBCU, called Mecca University. Burns added, the series will “feel universal to the HBCU experience.”

“The Mecca should feel like an HBCU love story, more broadly,” she said.

Scott also echoed the sentiment for The Mecca to be timeless.

“The dream is to one day be able to stand The Mecca next to A Different World and have fans debating which is the greatest, kind of the way we debate LeBron James and Michael Jordan,” they said during the screening’s Q&A. “I just want The Mecca to be in that company.”

Scott’s hope for Insecure-level recognition seems like a no-brainer to execute, as they worked on Insecure as a PA thanks to winning Insecure‘s On The Set Contest. Issa Rae also posted about The Mecca on her Instagram.

Scott has also worked on The Quad and Raising Dion. Lena Waithe funded Scott’s writing classes once they moved to Los Angeles to pursue their career in television. Scott hopes they can take what they’ve learned from these shows and mentors and pass it along to others wanting to break into the industry.

“We definitely need more HBCU creatives [in the industry,]” they said, adding that once The Mecca becomes a television series, they hope to install their own contest similar to Insecure‘s to bring more people of color into Hollywood.

You can watch the web series on IGTV and YouTube. You can also learn more about The Mecca at its website and on Instagram.

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Photo credit: The Mecca/YouTube

Vondell J. Burns

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