Prentice Penny

Prentice Penny is an Emmy nominated, Peabody, and Golden Globe winning writer-director-producer who has brought his unique voice and sensibilities to some of today’s most beloved projects. With a passion for storytelling that inspires audiences to reconsider how they view the world, Penny and his multi-media production company, A Penny For Your Thoughts Entertainment, have dedicated creative efforts towards telling stories that offer fresh perspectives and explore beyond the beaten path to challenge the way we think about our culture and one another.

Penny is best known for his role as showrunner, executive producer and frequent director for HBO’s hit award-winning comedy “Insecure.” The culture-shifting series has garnered awards recognition for star Issa Rae, supporting cast, crew members and creative team from The Peabody Awards, Emmy, and NAACP Awards, among others. Since its debut, the series has been praised for its honest, powerful and poignant conversations about race, relationships, sexuality and what it’s like to navigate the awkward time in your life that is your late 20s and early 30s.

Up next, Penny is directing and producing “Black Twitter: A People's History” which will world premiere at SXSW in March 2024. Based on Jason Parham’s Wired article “A People’s History of Black Twitter,” this three-part series charts the rise, the movements, the voices, and the memes that made Black Twitter an influential and dominant force in nearly every aspect of American political and cultural life. It will debut on Hulu in Spring 2024.

Penny founded his multi-media production company, A Penny For Your Thoughts Entertainment, which specializes in content that explores the nuances of human experience through diverse characters and storylines. With a passion for storytelling that inspires audiences to reconsider how they view the world, Penny created the company with a focus on projects that offer fresh perspectives that explore beyond the beaten path to challenge the way we think about our culture and one another. The company has an overall deal with Onyx where it develops and produces projects for all Disney platforms, including Hulu, which serves as the primary home to Onyx films and television.

Among the other projects Penny has in development are “New Kid”, which Penny will direct for Universal based on the # 1 New York Times bestseller, produced through A Penny For Your Thoughts Entertainment, and HBO series “The Untamed,” an epic fantasy tale based on the culturally diverse Asunda line of comic books. He is also working on “Queens,” the story of an interconnected group of immigrant women in New York City, as well as a feature film "The Compton Cowboys" for Fox Searchlight, and a drama tv series called "The Stationary Shop".

Additionally, among Penny’s past credits are several acclaimed comedy series, including co-executive producing on the Golden Globe-winning freshman season of Fox’s comedy “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” working as a supervising producer and writer critically-acclaimed cult favorite “Happy Endings” which earned two NAACP Award nominations for the show in the “Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series” category, along with working on the hit ensemble series “Scrubs” and the seminal sitcom “Girlfriends.” Penny also created, executive produced, and ran the NAACP Award-winning show “The Hustle.” Billed as the first scripted hip-hop dramedy, “The Hustle” was Fuse Network’s landmark show with guest stars including Jadakiss, Freddie Gibbs, and DJ Skee among others. Penny was also an executive producer on “Pause with Sam Jay,” HBO’s Late-Night Show with ‘SNL’ writer Sam Jay. Along with its scripted projects, the company has also ventured into unscripted programming, which includes, the original lifestyle series “Upscale with Prentice Penny” for truTV.

In addition to TV, Penny’s recent project, the Netflix original film "Uncorked", marked the multi-hyphenates feature directorial and screenwriting debut. Starring Mamoudou Athie, Niecy Nash and Courtney B. Vance, the film earned rave reviews and quickly become Netflix’s #1 movie in the U.S. the week of its release. Loosely based on Penny’s family history, the film at its core is a father-son story about love, sacrifice and following your heart. Cementing Penny as a talented filmmaker to watch, the film’s skillful storytelling offered an intimate glimpse into family dynamics with added nuance and dimension, expanding and overturning the traditional stereotypes of Black father-son relationships.