co-creator Adjani Salmon picked up a BAFTA Emerging Talent Award last year for the whip-smart comedy in which he also stars as Kwabena, an aspiring filmmaker struggling to get his first short up while enduring casual racism in the recruitment agency where he reluctantly works to pay the bills (late).
Very loosely based on his own experiences, it sprung from his frustration at the supposed pathway to success. “At film school, you get taught that if you make a great short film, you’ll get into big festivals where you’ll get this magical agent who’s gonna sign you, so have your first feature ready because they’re going to get it made,” the Jamaican born, British-based Salmon says. “And I did make that grad film [His Father’s Son, 2015] that did really well in festivals, but nothing happened.”
It was demoralising. “I remember, when we got into Montreal, thinking ‘Oh man, this is it,’ and spending all my money going there, renting the cheapest Airbnb possible and going to all the screenings, networking events and meeting people. But the only thing that happened was I met other versions of me, trying to get somewhere.”
It was around this point that Salmon first spotted the trailer for Issa Rae’s outstanding semi-autobiographical hit TV series Insecure, which ran for five seasons on the HBO network in 2016-21. “I swore that it was a web series first, like back in the day, but [the YouTube web series that debuted in 2011 and gained viral attention for Rae] isn’t the same,” he clarifies. “There are very similar tropes in the two shows, and I remember thinking ‘Aww, she really came up’.”
Inspired by Rae’s pathway and by Kayode Ewumi and Tyrell Williams’ , he changed tack. “I was thinking, ‘This web series thing feels like the thing, and realistically it takes three years to make a feature film. I can just make this web series over the summer’.”
Adjani Salmon in 'Dreaming Whilst Black'. Credit: Anup Bhatt / BBC / Big Deal Films
One summer turned into two years, and while this dry run web series version of Dreaming Whilst Black didn’t go viral as Salmon hoped, it wound up opening doors that his short did not, with production company Big Deal Films coming on board alongside both the BBC and American indie powerhouse distributor A24, who backed acclaimed comedy series Ramy and Netflix hit Beef. “When I do take a second, and it’s probably only a second, to reflect on it, it is insane,” he says of the big break second time around. “It’s surreal, but at the time you’re in the weeds just trying to make the show.”
The TV version has tweaked the vibe of the web series. “It’s in the same vein, with a kid [Salmon] trying to make a film, but it’s funny, that one took a much darker tone which was way more autobiographical,” he says. “The TV version is a more adult version of the web series. When I was writing it with Ali Hughes [who also worked on the original] sometimes we’d get stuck, and I’d say, ‘But I wouldn’t do that. And he’d be like, ‘Yeah, but it’s not you, and we need this character to do whatever we need him to do to make this shit funny’.”
Funmi (Rachel Adedeji) and Maurice (Demmy Laipo). Credit: Domizia Salusest / BBC / Big Deal Films
“It was very important for us that it felt like a Black British experience, so it was this delicate dance of balancing these five characters who are all on their own journey,” Salmon says. “This is my first major credit, and they’ve been acting for years, so being in scenes with them felt like I was learning. They were lifting me up, because they’d do a take and I’m thinking, ‘Whoa, now, I have to come with extra energy’.”
Energy that helped him get cast in ‘Eve of the Daleks’, Doctor Who’s New Year’s Day special in 2022. “I’m one of two humans to survive a Dalek extermination with Aisling Bea,” he laughs. “I’m now trivia.”
Babirye Bukilwa and Adjani Salmon on set. Credit: Domizia Salusest / BBC / Big Deal Films
It was an adjustment stepping from the writers’ room and in front of the camera, surrendering a version of himself, however far removed, to series directors Koby Adom, Joelle Mae David, Jermain Julien and Sebastian Thiel. “Sometimes it’s great, and sometimes, I kinda see something and I’m like, ‘Alright, cool, let me let me just talk to the director quietly’,” Salmon chuckles. “But at the same time, it’s a matter of trust, and I have to submit to the directors and say, ‘Well, you know, I hired these guys because I thought they were great’. If I really don’t like it, I’ll just cut it in the edit, ha.”
The result is a hilarious show with abundant, lived-in heart that will have many white viewers laughing uproariously while simultaneously cringing at the dumb, occasionally spiteful and kinda gross stuff some of us say daily. “Early doors, we made up a rule that we weren’t going to make up the racist jokes,” Salmon says of these barbed stingers sourced from the cast and crew’s real-life experiences, as well as fans of the web series who got in touch. “We may tweak the circumstances, but they definitely happened. And we have like this bank of racist stories to pull from, which is crazy.”
He hopes people of colour watching Dreaming Whilst Black will draw strength from the absurdity of these situations. “Our perspective is that it’s ridiculous, so the comedy is purely based on highlighting how ridiculous it is. We want our community to feel seen, like we want that person at the office to know ‘Don’t worry. It’s crazy, and we know it’s crazy. We just want you to know that we see you’.”
Six-part series Dreaming Whilst Black is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
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Dreaming Whilst Black
