Do you ever watch an uplifting story about a queer youth finding himself, making the world a better place... and just secretly wish to yourself... I wish someone would just pull someone's hair and fall into a pool? If so, House Husbands is the show for you!
Do you ever watch an uplifting story about a queer youth finding himself, making the world a better place... and just secretly wish to yourself... I wish someone would just pull someone's hair and fall into a pool? If so, House Husbands is the show for you!
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Story
Mission Statement
We are a group of queer filmmakers telling a queer story. House Husbands is a comedy featuring an ensemble of middle aged gay men. None are heroes. None are victims. They are just incredibly flawed human beings fighting for what they want and it's hilarious!About The Project
ABOUT US...
Our creator Michael Monteiro Wise and director Tim O'Leary first met through a LGBTQ writers group in 2017. It's purpose - to create an enviroment for queer writers to develop their scripts and to create a supportive community. The first draft was read in that group and soon after we decided to make this series a reality.
House Husbands speaks to the dynamics of gaymen we never get to see in mainstream media. More often than not that's because we only ever see one at a time. It's hard to delve into the dynamics of queer people when they are always just the token, isn't it?
We have a gay comedy featuring some of the best talents Hollywood has to offer. All are eager to tell this story. Please help us to make this come true!
The first season of House Husbands focuses on an increasingly messy gay divorce and the ripple effect it has on this crumbling social circle.
This is Sylvester Fowler (Sam Pancake.)
Sylvester is the toast of the town in his affluent gay community in Palm Springs. He has a fabulous house, fabulous friends...
... and a handsome, successful husband, Howard (Tim Christian.)
They're the very picture of a perfect couple...
until Howard tells Sylvester he wants a divorce.Crestfallen, Sylvester reaches out to his friends for support. First he contacts his supposed BFF, Eddy Porter (Drew Droege.)
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Eddy is the town gossip who worships his best friend Sylvester. It's a problem.
But then Eddy gets a stern command from his
Therapist (Lori Beth Denberg.)
"No more Sylvester!"
With no Eddy to depend on, Sylvester seeks the help of perhaps the only stable couple in all of Palm Springs, the wealthy alpha gays...
Glenn Coldwater (Barry Brisco) and John Coldwater (Les Kurkendaal-Barrett)
Glenn and John are trying to have a baby via surrogate, and can't wait to share the news with their friends... Fortunately, they find a surrogate they both like, Lily.
Lily is best friends with a massage therapist at the local spa, Trent (Robert Rice.)
Trent is a total romantic who can't help but form a crush on his coworker. But his coworker in question becomes a sugar baby to a wealthy older man..
Oh, and the coworker? His name is Christopher Alvarez (Jason Caceres.)
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Christopher is only intersted in one thing. A wealthy man. And the man he traps? Howard, aka Sylvester's ex.
What happens next? You'll have to wait for us to get greenlit to find out!
In the 1930’s, Palm Springs became a mecca for Hollywood stars. It was close enough to Los Angeles that stars were able to retreat there without breaching their contracts and far enough away where they could avoid tabloid reporters searching for a scandal. Gossip columnists of the time were given travel expenses so they could follow the biggest names of the time. These reimbursements however only extended within 100 miles of Los Angeles. Palm Springs being 107 miles away became a safe space for the gay Hollywood community. The gay scene established then still exists today.
Ninety years later Palm Springs is still a famous gay getaway full of gay resorts for tourists and homes for residents.The Origin of House Husbands
"House Husbands" is a love letter to the 1936 play and film "The Women." While "The Women" was a satire centered around wealthy wives living in New York City, "House Husbands" is a modern satire centered around gay men in Palm Springs.
While "House Husbands" isn't a direct adaptation of the Clare Buth Luce play, both stories take a comedic look at incestuous, upper class social circles and how they can turn toxic very, very quickly.
In order to accomplish this we are going to need your help! Here is a breakdown of how your generous dollars will be spent…
How Can You Help?
FOLLOW
Follow our campaign and stay up-to-date on the latest "House Husband" news! It's 100% free.
What do we get out of it? Seed&Spark rewards us for building our audience. From 250 followers onward, we start to unlock products, services, and festival fee waivers courtesy of Seed&Spark! Share with anyone who you think might be interested in this kind of queer content!
CONTRIBUTE AND PLEDGEYou can make a contribution to our film by making a pledge. We have to collect 80% of our crowdfunding goal to keep our funds. You can choose an incentive or make a pledge to a specific wishlist item. No pledge is too small!
LOANS & DONATIONS
Can't make a monetary pledge but have services or items you can donate or loan? Check out our wishlist! We can offer credit and/or advertising. Feel free to make a loan request in our "Wishlist" tab or email us at [email protected].
For example...
Lodging and/or locations
Catering
Transportation
SPREAD THE WORD!
The only way we will reach our crowdfunding goal is if we reach beyond our networks. If you’d like to be a part of supporting young, queer filmmakers through LGBTQIA stories, YOU can make the difference in our success!
Please share our campaign via your social media, email, word-of-mouth, however you want!
Here are some examples. Feel free to copy and paste!
Help filmmakers @TimOLearyOnline and @MichaelMonteiroWise by supporting the #queer series @HouseSeries. Think “The Women” with actual gay men, set in Palm Springs. Join them on @seedandspark: LINK
I'm so excited to see the show @HouseSeries, by MMW, be filmed in #PalmSprings this spring including icons @JSamPancake and @DrewDroege! Support them on @seedandspark: LINKNote on COVID-19 Precautions.
We are dedicated to making this project safely with our cast and crew’s health as the the #1 priority. This will include testing all on set regularly, making sure everyone is masked unless absolutely necessary, and complying with all of SAG’s Covid Safety Guidelines.
What Happens Next?!
This campaign is to help us get through what’s to be an expensive couple of weeks filming. If we are able to reach %100 of our goal, we’ll be able to film six amazing episodes. That’s of course only the beginning of the journey. We’ll also have a post production period to edit these into six small gems that will then venture out into the LGBTQI festival circuit, and from there who knows?!
Incentives
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Wishlist
Use the WishList to pledge cash and loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an incentive directly.
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Current Team
About This Team
Michael Monteiro-Wise - Writer/Producer
Michael is a queer writer with an affinity for dramedy and dark comedies. He is currently an associate producer for MTV's Ridiculousness. His original pilots have placed in the Austin Film Festival (2020,2021), Screencraft Screenwriting Fellowship (2021) and the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards (2021).
Tim O'Leary - Director/Producer
Tim is an award-winning screenwriter and professional ghostwriter. He's a graduate of the UCLA Professional Program in Television Writing, and was one of the co-creators of the comedy series Moms Anonymous, featuring the late, great 80s video vixen Tawny Kitaen.
When not writing or directing, he works as a fight coordinator for film and theater, and his fights have appeared in such films as Disciple (by Hustling creator Sebastian La Cause) and The Zoo (Denim Richards.)
Tim is the founder of the LGBTQIA TV Writers in LA, the only group for queer writers in Los Angeles. He is also the founder of Freaky Fighty Funny Films, a production company dedicated to queer genre projects. Their flagship project, the action-horror-comedy series Demonhuntr, will be premiering on HereTV in January of 2022.
Zack Ogle - Actor/Producer
Zack is a queer writer/producer and a self proclaimed "Lord of the Pies". He's an award winning filmmaker & performer, a seasoned Dungeon Master, and co-host of the queer podcast "We're Not Together with Zack and Haley".
Russell Kohlmann - Actor/Producer
Russell Kohlmann (affectionately known as "Ruffles") is an actor-writer-producer and a newcomer to the "House Husbands" production team. He's thrilled to be working with such incredible talent both in front of and behind the camera. Follow him @russellkohlmann for constant dance videos, cats, and endless Britney Spears trivia.
Timothy L. Quirus - Producer
As a first-generation college student, Timothy L. Quirus went after the tools UC Berkeley offered to help support his desired career for storytelling in both the stage and screen mediums. With his unique voice, deep-rooted emotions, Tim hopes to express through future works, a crusade into illuminating stories about the queer community, diversity, and social change. He successfully authored two Honors Thesis’s in each of his Theater (2019) and Film (2021) majors, and graduated from Cal with distinction in May of 2021. Timothy has a passion for Hollywood history, children’s books, fairytales, superheroes, horror films, and Jane Austen. Doris Day is his “diva”.
Sam Pancake - Actor (Sylvester)
Sam Pancake is a Los Angeles -based actor, comedian & writer who grew up in Romney WV. For over thirty years he has been one of the few openly gay, continuously working actors of his generation. Along with his work on stage and in commercials and films, he has appeared in many of your favorite TV series, including West Wing, Will and Grace, Wings, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, Charmed, King of Queens, Documentary Now, Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life and Friends, to name a few. More recently he can be seen in recurring roles on Search Party on HBO Max , Saved By The Bell on Peacock and A Million Little Things on ABC.
Drew Droege - Actor (Eddy)
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Drew Droege is best known for his online Chloe Sevigny videos, as well as lots and lots of gay web series. He’s written and performed two solo shows Off-Broadway, “Bright Colors And Bold Patterns” (Best Performance, Outfest 2018) and “Happy Birthday Doug”, both of which are streaming on BroadwayHD. His most recent tv/film credits include “Search Party”, “The Great North”, “Bob’s Burgers”, “Q-Force”, “Drunk History”, and the upcoming films “Me Time”, “El Tonto”, and “The Extinction of Fireflies”. He’s also written for the Netflix series “Big Mouth” and “AJ And The Queen”, and performs a lot on stage in LA with The Groundlings, Celebration Theatre, and Casita del Campo, where twice a year he is Rose in “The Golden Girlz”.
Barry Brisco - Actor (Glenn)
Barry Brisco from Plainfield, New Jersey, has a BA in Theater Arts Management and AA in speech Communication. Barry is an award nominated S.A.G./AFTRA Actor. A Writer, Director and Producer. With an extensive career in film and television and theater spanning over 3 decades. Barry is most proud to have been a part of the film Dreamgirls. Which led him from the lights of Broadway to the Sign on the Hill called Hollywood. Barry has appeared in several films and Television shows. Including "General Hospital", and "Ray Donovan" Barry can be seen in the final season of "Lucifer" on Netflix and most recently joined the Shondaland family as "Dr. Reid" on the hit television show "Station 19". During the pandemic Barry had the honor of playing one of his heroes, The Legendary Gay Rights icon and the reason we have Gay Pride, thrower of Stonewall bricks "Ms. Marcia P. Johnson" Barry is recently back in the US after basically touring nude across Australia and Switzerland with his with the hit Vegas Show "Puppetry of the Penis" Google huh.
Jason Caceres - Actor (Christopher)
Jason Caceres is excited to play Christopher in the new series “House Husbands!" Jason can be seen playing Jimmy Bennet on Criminal Minds. He is also thrilled to announce an appearance on upcoming Hulu show Pam & Tommy as well as on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Jason will also recur in Facebook’s first scripted show Turnt, Netflix’s Insatiab le and Showtime’s Kidding. He will also be playing “Chayce” in the upcoming series “Boy Culture” directed by Q. Allan Brocka, as well as “Alejandro” in the horror series “Demonhuntr” by Tim O’Leary.
Robert Rice - Actor (Trent)
Robert Rice is a frequent guest artist on the Instagram series Wait What (@waitwhatcomedy) and makes frequent appearances in sketches by Youtube comedian David Spates. He and his barbershop quartet, The Accidentals, were recently featured in the national GEICO commercial "A Barbershop Quartet Plays Basketball." He has appeared on Pink Collar Crimes on CBS and Riggle’s Picks on Fox, as well as @Midnight and Mini-mocks on Comedy Central. He also recently performed alongside Vanessa Bayer and Jeff Goldblum in the Jenny Lewis On the Line telethon. Robert is a co-founder of Freaky Fighty Funny Films, and is dedicated to fostering new inclusive works in genre film.
Les Kurkendaal- Barrett (John)
Les Kurkendaal- Barrett is a Los Angeles based actor and stand up comedian. He is been touring the world with his award winning solo shows since 2000 . He is also a published writer with an essay that appears in The Story Salon Big Book of Stories.
Vana Bell (Lily)
Vana Bell is a Los Angeles based actor and a United States Marine Corps veteran. Her credits include shorts such as Darryl, Just Another Dance with my Father, and Brannan & the Monosexuals: Double Booked. Outside of acting, she still works as a DoD contractor, and volunteers with veteran-related nonprofit organizations such as Veterans in Media & Entertainment and Pin-Ups for Vets. She enjoys reading in her free time.
Tim Christian (Howard)
Christian wrote, produced and stars in the 2021 multi-award-winning short film The Virtual Connection, directed by the Emmy-nominated Billy Clift, and co-starring Mel England (From Zero to I Love You) and Antoine Perry (Waking Up with Strangers). He made his mark playing a variety of character roles in film and television. Notable networks include Discovery and truTV. Trained in long form narrative improvisation, Christian has performed live in Conservatory program productions of Dorothy Parker Improvised, Rom-Com Improvised, and Tennessee Williams Improvised at L.A.s Impro Theatre.
Michael Henry (Zip)
Michael Henry is an actor, comedian, writer and content creator with over 50 million views on youtube and 170k subscribers. His work has been featured in The Advocate, Huffington Post, E! News, LogoTv, just to name a few. He Just wrapped Hosting the new Game Show "The Gauntlet of Gaymes" for OutTv which is set to premier March 2022. He's also a stand up comedian who has sold out shows in Los Angeles, Chicago and NYC.
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