Woo's new "Main Character" Series Fills the Gap Between Tiktok and Netflix

Nov. 24, 2023

Pioneering youth media brand Woo is breaking the norms of digital storytelling and creating a new feel-good genre of entertainment for Gen Z with Main Character, a comedic online film series featuring an artist, a rapper and a dancer from the Dublin underground, telling three interwoven stories of personal growth in a candid stream-of-consciousness style. Inspired by the TikTok main character trend ("I’m in my main character era") - where people embrace confidence in themselves and their decisions, living out as the main character in their own lives.

Relatable, optimistic and inclusive, this three-part series - conceived & directed by Isolde Penwarden, co-produced by Amsterdam-based creative agency Soursop and Woo - is set in Dublin, Ireland, and features a series of eccentric, real-life TikTok personalities confronting - and finding the comedy in - real situations from dating disasters to birthday blues.

Reflecting Woo’s mission to redefine self-care for Gen Z audiences - the so-called "Generation Anxious" - Main Character rejects the wellness industry’s tropes, instead taking the voice, themes and sensibilities of Gen Z off TikTok and transplanting them into a comedy-drama. Creating a pioneering new entertainment form that captures the voice of a generation that’s all too frequently misunderstood by mainstream media.

The series was created by next-gen creative agency, Soursop with an initial concept from creative director Isolde Penwarden, who also directed the series. Woo’s founder, CEO, media disruptor, Stephen Mai, guided the development of the series.

In the first episode, "Venus Finds Love", Dublin-based artist Venus is revealed as the ultimate romantic… so on a date she’s willing to be open-minded. But when she finds the real deal can she risk being vulnerable?

Woo’s ethos is not about creating content directly related to wellness, but rather creating entertainment that ‘makes you feel good’. Its aim is to create a safe space in what many Gen Z-ers see as a toxic world, through a design-driven, audience-first and fluid approach which prioritises storytelling. As a media ecosystem that reframes wellness as feeling good and that embraces internet culture, Woo creates multitudes of endorphin-inducing micro-moments that stand out compared to franchise shows.

Stephen Mai, CEO of Woo said:

"Woo’s purpose is to redefine wellness for a generation: removing the rigidity and perfection associated with the wellness industry to make it more accessible and aligned with how people live in the modern world. The world is in a tough place right now and we need escapism through relatable storytelling that rejects tropes and makes you feel good. We make entertainment that breaks the norms of digital storytelling."

 

Isolde Penwarden, Creative Director, Woo said:

"Inspired by the TikTok trend that captured everyone’s imagination, Main Character plays on the idea that we experience life as the protagonist of our own story. We selected our main characters through Zoom interviews with real young people. I was seeking moments from their lives that could be classified as ‘everyday acts of bravery’ - small actions which had altered the trajectory of their life stories. To acknowledge the agency that we have in creating our own life-plots, I wanted our main characters to have a direct interplay with the camera - sometimes breaking the fourth wall to make an aside or guiding the lens to what’s important in a scene. However, the camera has a motive of its own: it's always looking for the next main character. This tension point creates an opportunity for comedy."

 

Ravi Amaratunga Hitchcock, Executive Creative Director and co-founder of Soursop said:

"Main Character plays in a really new entertainment space - taking the honesty and relatability of TikTok and launching it into a more elevated, yet still "real" space. It's addictive feel-good storytelling done differently - which has come to embody the Woo way of doing things."

 

The series will be broadcast across Woo’s media ecosystem from 23 November 2023.