Emmy-nominated director, writer, and producer Sam Bailey is the new board officer of film and TV for Chicago’s Open Television (OTV), an award-winning media incubator and streaming platform for Black, brown, differently abled, and queer storytellers. The news comes months after Bailey’s move from Hollywood back to Chicago. She spoke to The TRiiBE about the decisions behind her transition in this November profile.
For Bailey and OTV, this is a full-circle moment.
“I think OTV represents, to me, a space for artists to create and have authorship over their work; a place of real, true support,” Bailey told The TRiiBE. “I don’t know many other organizations in Chicago surrounded specifically around filmmaking that provides the structure and foundation for people to actually make the thing, not just think of the thing.”
Bailey’s early film and TV beginnings started with OTV. In 2015, she debuted her web series “You’re So Talented,” on the streaming platform. Aside from being the creator and starring in the series, Bailey also directed it, wrote it and starred as a young, out-of-work actress named Bea navigating through the trials and tribulations of her twenties. She was also the executive producer and casting director.
In 2017, she followed up with “Brown Girls,” which also streamed on OTV. The web series starred a queer Pakistani-American writer and an African-American musician in the lead roles. Bailey co-produced the series with renowned Chicago poet Fatimah Asghar.
Bailey then made the move out to Hollywood to follow her dreams. She lived in Los Angeles for 10 years, working on shows like Freeform’s “Grown-ish,” Netflix’s “Dear White People,” Showtime’s “The Chi” and Marvel’s “Ironheart.”
The TRiiBE spoke to Elijah McKinnon, co-founder and CEO of OTV, about Bailey joining their board.
“Her role is to help us better understand and contextualize the way in which the film and TV industry is rapidly changing, and also creating opportunities for the artists that we support to have a better grasp on what is required to enter into this really changing landscape,” McKinnon said.
McKinnon also pointed to the history between Bailey and OTV as the foundation for this moment. Last fall, OTV honored Bailey with their inaugural Beyond the Screen Legacy Award.
“We’re really proud of the relationship that we’ve cultivated with Sam over the past 10 years, and can’t wait to see what she does in this new capacity, what that looks like,” McKinnon said.
For Bailey, she said the decision to join OTV was a no brainer. “It really just made sense,” she said. “When they asked me, I was like, yeah, duh. Because we’ve really grown up together.”
Bailey said that shared history also comes with a sense of responsibility in making the path forward more clear for the next generation of creatives.
“So much of what I encountered when I got into Hollywood is that there’s just so much I didn’t know. I just felt very alone in that journey. So, ideally, I can help demystify the process for these newer filmmakers coming up,” she said.
Creating access and pathways to success is what sets OTV apart from the traditional industry, Bailey said. That affirmation comes in the form of OTV giving artists the tools, structure and ownership needed to fully realize their ideas. The nonprofit did that for her during her humble beginnings. “OTV affirms the creator in a way that I think Hollywood could never and is not interested in,” she said.
OTV will celebrate Bailey’s new position on April 9 at the Apple Store on Michigan Ave. They’ll also celebrate the launch of their “Today at Apple” collaboration series with the global tech brand.
For the collaboration, Apple has loaned OTV all new iPhone 17s, and OTV is commissioning three artists from around the world who will make short films using only the devices.
Through this project, the idea of who gets to tell stories, how they are made, and how they are presented to the world is seen through a much more accessible light.
For OTV, the partnership aligns with their mission to elevate upcoming filmmakers while also pushing their stories on a global platform.
“Yeah, it’s gonna be really special,” McKinnon said about the event. “It’s a kickoff to a longer term partnership, where we’ll be hosting them in cities around the world this year. So we’re very, very excited to be able to give Chicago the exclusive we fought for, and we can’t wait to bring these filmmakers and give them the shine that they deserve.”
