The Obama’s and the “Doc McStuffins” creator, Chris Nee, team up to produce a new animated preschool series for the popular streaming service, Netflix.
“The Obamas’ production company, ‘Higher Ground’ and ‘Doc McStuffin’ creator Chris Ness are bringing the new animated preschool series ‘Ada Twist, Scientist’ to Netflix,” the beginning of an Instagram post read announcing the show and partnership.
The series will follow a young Black scientist named Ada Twist. Ada will explore throughout the series how to help people “through scientific discovery, collaboration, and friendship.”
“I’m thrilled to be partnering with Higher Ground to bring Ada Twist to the screen,” Nee said to Deadline in an interview. “As a fan of the books, I was taken with the diverse characters, striking designs, and vital message that science matters. Plus, Ada fulfills my personal need to populate children’s television with strong girls who aren’t afraid to be the smartest kids in the room. Once Kerri Grant came on board to showrun, I knew we had the dream team to bring this special series to life.”
Netflix has ordered 40, 12-minute episodes which will debut in 2021.
“As a young, curious Black girl who grew up loving TV, I simply became accustomed to rarely seeing images that reflected me onscreen — and the ones that did, represented an anti-intellectual stereotype that led me to hide my own light under a bushel,” said Grant to Deadline in the same interview. “To be a part of bringing a show to kids that features a young, Black girl being unapologetically the smartest kid in the room, in a world as diverse and visually stunning as the one created by the book series’ author and illustrator, fills my heart to capacity. Working with Chris Nee, my old boss, and certified preschool TV hit-maker; and Higher Ground and their commitment to representation, dreaming big, and excellence, has been the alignment of so many stars, it’s truly a celestial event.”
The series follows a popular book series, Ada Twist Scientist, written by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts to encourage more young girls to follow careers in STEM.
