‘FreeLance’ Brings Black-Led Comedy To Sundance

When sibling filmmakers Justen and Julien Turner sent in their comedy pilot “FreeLance” for consideration at the Sundance Film Festival last year, the duo thought they had everything in order. Everything except one crucial detail.

“It’s a funny story,” Justen told HuffPost. “When we submitted, we didn’t have any of our personal or contact information on the submission.”

Fairly new to the process, the brothers weren’t entirely sure how representatives from the renowned film festival would get in touch if their scripted project was selected. Justen said he turned to Reddit for guidance (“It was like, they call you”) and even double-checked to make sure everything on their cold submission appeared complete. Still, that missing piece of information nearly derailed their golden opportunity. Fortunately, the duo received a phone call one day in late November — though it wasn’t from the festival just yet.

“They ended up reaching out to our mom first, because her number is on our website, and she called us,” Justen explained. “She was like, ’Call this number right now, it’s Sundance.’”

“At the time, Justen and I were on the phone when our mom told us to call those people back,” added his older brother, Julien. “We were like, ’Oh, we’re about to ring them in right now.’ We called them back, merged the call and one of the programmers picked up and said, ’We just wanted to let you know that we want [‘FreeLance’] to premiere at Sundance.’”

“We played it so cool,” he continued with a laugh. “We were like, ‘Ohhh, cool.’ Then we muted our phones, and I started running around. I was outside, just running in circles … It was definitely surreal. It didn’t feel real. I think for the rest of the night, we were on cloud nine.”

It’s easy to see why, after years of dreaming of a moment like this. Fast forward to today, and the Turner Brothers are heading to Sundance for the first time to unveil their pilot “FreeLance,” a hilarious, candid ode to their journey as filmmakers trying to break into the business.

Selected for the Park City festival’s episodic pilot showcase, the show follows an aspiring filmmaker from Ohio named Lance (Spence Moore II) as he documents the pursuit of making his first movie after moving in with a bunch of creative friends. Together, the tight-knit yet inexperienced crew of 20-somethings tries to help one another chase their dreams in today’s overcrowded creator market, taking on offbeat gigs to grow their brands and doing their best to stay afloat.

The series boasts a cast of familiar faces, including comedians and internet personalities such as Lou Young III, Lou Ratchett, Bernard “B Nard” Clark, René Vaca, Mel Mitchell, Christianee Porter, Kyle Flood and Jaren Bretz. Elijah Cooper and London Arrington also star.

It’s a bit of a surprise that an episodic project like “FreeLance” found its way into Sundance. The film festival has long been known for spotlighting weighty indie dramas and buzzy documentaries, with comedic projects — particularly Black-led ones like “FreeLance” — not always garnering the same visibility. And with a Gen-Z/Zillennial-focused story centered on the realities facing young Black and brown creatives, the Turner Brothers’ pilot is an obvious standout on this year’s lineup.

Even so, “it means the world” for the pair to bring an unconventional story like “FreeLance” so aligned with the festival’s mission to such a huge audience.

“It very much matches the ethos of Sundance in terms of uplifting independent creators,” Justen said. “That’s what ‘FreeLance’ is about. In this new world, where it can feel really lonely, and there’s so much saturation in the market, it’s easy to lose yourself in the crowd.”

“We just wanted to show other creators and filmmakers that they are seen and heard, and there is levity to the situation,” he added. “It’s not all dark.”

For Julien, Sundance’s embrace of the pilot also seems to signal a broader “shift in the landscape of filmmaking,” particularly as it relates to opportunities arising from the rapidly booming creator economy.

“We’re in a world where there’s value to your social cache, your personal brand, your DIY journey, and so even Sundance recognizing that that exists is huge,” he said. “It’s easy to see ’The Studio’ and be like, ‘All right, we all see that top-down perspective,’ but for [Sundance] to shed a light on that bottom-up perspective from ground zero, from hundreds of miles away from the industry, is a huge step forward, I feel like, for the new generation of creators.”

In many respects, “FreeLance” is an homage to the place where the Turner Brothers’ filmmaking dreams were first born. Unlike most industry-focused shows that take place in larger metropolitan cities, the duo thought it best to set their pilot in their hometown of Columbus, Ohio, a place that doesn’t often get the spotlight.

“You see a lot of the Gen-Z ensemble cast trying to figure out life together. Stories like that are not anything new, but you typically see that in New York, Los Angeles or Atlanta,” Julien said. “But we felt like there’s a huge market in the Midwest that no one’s really tapped into.”

“Even middle America as a whole,” added Justen. “You only really ever see two or three cities [about the entertainment industry], if we’re talking about mainstream television. Us setting ‘FreeLance’ in Ohio provides a base point for a lot of people all over the U.S. who can relate to not being in one of those big hubs and trying to figure it out when it doesn’t seem like there’s necessarily that many opportunities where you are.”

Co-directed by the Turner Brothers through their DreadHead Films production banner, “FreeLance” essentially serves as a “roadmap” of their journey in the industry, highlighting the “unpredictable” realities of today’s freelance world and turning them into rich comedic material.

“It’s written based on our experiences,” said Justen, adding that turning those into a “cohesive story was one of our most fun challenges of this project.”

“Of course, it’s still fiction, still narrative,” he added. “We love telling stories and building a universe, so there are a lot of stories that are pulled from our life, but also pulled from things that we’ve seen, especially with our friends, the things that they go through.”

Initially, the pilot didn’t have a fully concrete premise. According to the brothers, it was just a collection of bits and pieces pulled from funny situations on film sets or lessons learned, things they felt compelled to share with others who could similarly relate.

“The idea was that, once we decided to sit down and really carve this out, we wanted ‘FreeLance’ to serve as that model that we didn’t have growing up,” Julien explained. “We didn’t have access to the schooling or people who had done it before, so everything we were doing, we were figuring out as we went.”

“We always talk about filmmaking as like getting a Cub Scout patch,” he added. “You gotta learn how to tie a knot, how to fish, how to make a fire, and that’s kind of how filmmaking was for us. It’s supposed to connect with that other 90% of the world that’s trying to break into the industry and really doesn’t know how. Just to get rid of the stigma and show that you need to make mistakes in order to learn and get to that next level.”

The creator-driven concept certainly struck a chord with comedian, actor and social media star Kevin “KevOnStage” Fredericks, an executive producer of “FreeLance” who also appears in the pilot as Lance’s father. Despite having never collaborated with the “incredibly talented” Turner Brothers and only being vaguely familiar with their work — without realizing it was theirs — a cold reach-out to Fredericks’ team, along with their résumé, reel and vision for the project, was enough to catch his attention.

What ultimately brought the producer on board, though, was the brothers’ “fresh, honest take on the creative hustle,” a perspective Fredericks hadn’t truly seen represented in media before, but one he immediately connected to, on account of his own experience.

“The deadlines, the uncertainty, taking jobs because you love them but not getting paid yet — that was my entire early career,” Fredericks told HuffPost over email. “Especially as a comedian, I spent years just doing it for the love of the game, making mistakes, figuring things out as I went. That grind, that in-between stage where you believe in yourself but nothing is guaranteed yet — that is exactly what ‘FreeLance’ captures so well, and why it felt so real to me.”

That same early-career grind also resonated with leading star Moore II — best known for roles in “All American,” “Brilliant Minds” and “Creed III” — who, after 12 years of acting, knows firsthand the dedication it takes to keep pursuing a passion, even when the journey gets difficult.

“I completely relate to how committed my character, Lance, is to making his dreams come true,” Moore II, also an executive producer on “FreeLance,” shared with HuffPost. “I resonated with this journey he’s on with his close friends, who are just as dedicated as he is, by his side.”

But Moore II’s connection to “FreeLance” went beyond the story itself. With both the actor and the Turner Brothers having family roots in Ohio, and a connection forged years earlier at a college workshop for young, aspiring creatives — where they promised to work together someday — “FreeLance” became the ideal opportunity to finally make that collaboration happen. As he tells it, making their Sundance debut together has made the occasion all the more special.

“This is a festival you eagerly hope to have a chance to showcase your craft, and the cherry on top is being able to do it with two filmmakers that I’m excited about producing more projects with in the future,” Moore II said.

He added, “I look forward to what’s next… Justen and Julien are what’s next.”

As intentional as the Turner Brothers were about making a series that spoke to a broader creative community, “FreeLance” also mirrors much of their own personal journeys, dating back to the early 2010s when they began experimenting with filmmaking software on their mom’s old Mac computer.

“We would just play around with iMovie and make it look like we had superpowers,” Justen shared of what first got the pair into directing. “We grew up on superheroes and action heroes — Power Rangers, Marvel, all that stuff — so that’s kind of what inspired us.”

Four years apart in age, the sibling duo was raised in a creatively inclined household with artist parents, which naturally drew them into that world and sparked a desire to take filmmaking seriously. What started as casual, one-off short films made with friends around the neighborhood, they said, gradually evolved into a hobby that helped the brothers discover a seamless collaborative rhythm.

“Julian would write stories, we would come make them together, and then I would edit,” explained Justen.

“It’s definitely something we’ve built, that relationship and understanding where our strengths are and where we lean into each other,” Julien remarked, adding, “Sometimes Justen’s my eyes, and I’m Justen’s ears.”

“That’s been an ongoing process,” he continued, “and now it’s at the point where we know exactly what we’re thinking and we can finish each other’s sentences. We know where to trust each other, and that was cultivated by our parents.”

Along with filmmaking, Julien also grew up immersed in sports, playing football throughout high school and college — a path that inspired both brothers to merge their passions, which led to Justen’s first official gig that put a camera in his hands.

“I would go to his games, and that got us into this sports adjacent place with filmmaking on the business and advertising side, which really resonated well with these sports brands.”

Eventually, Julien landed a content creator internship at Adidas’ headquarters in Portland — quietly enlisting Justen’s help along the way — which put the brothers in front of Zion Armstrong, then-president of the North America division, who connected them with James Whitner, founder of the retail and cultural collective The Whitaker Group, known for high-end collaborations with brands like Nike, Air Jordan, and more.

The life-changing opportunity came about in the early years of the pandemic, after the brothers were forced to abandon plans to move to LA together following graduation — Justen was set to attend the University of Southern California as an undergrad, while Julien, a Morehouse grad, planned to enroll in USC’s film school — and instead move back in with their parents.

“We were in Ohio just putting on shoots and trying to keep ourselves entertained during COVID,” Julien said. “That kind of got us into really doing this as a career choice.”

From there, the brothers spent the next few years shooting sneaker-focused short films, earning recognition from The Webby Awards and landing on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2023 before expanding into other brand endeavors. Now, they’re channeling that experience into their latest passion project.

“Everything’s been like an avalanche up to this point,” Julien said. “One thing has led to another, and opportunities have come that we couldn’t have predicted, and that’s all filmmaking. We have tried to be consistent, and regardless if somebody was paying for it or not, we said we were going to shoot something any time we got together. We’ve kept that mindset, and that ultimately became ‘Freelance.’”

He added, “Again, it was like, we’re here, we got a little change, so let’s try to put something together and see if we can self-fund or get this off the ground ourselves and start bringing in people.”

For the brothers, casting “FreeLance” was one of the more enjoyable parts of the process that allowed them to find “young, hungry” talent, including some they already had long-standing relationships with — like former NFL cornerback Lou Young III, with whom they’d collaborated on several projects with Whitner and The Whitaker Group, as well as comedian Mel Mitchell.

“A lot of our focus when it came to casting was like, ‘Who do we know that’s the most talented and has been able to show it?’” Justen shared. “And so it came down to people who we were generally fans of who we followed.”

That approach led the pair to recruit other talent like Lou Ratchett, stand-up comedian René Vaca, and Bernard “B Nard” Clark of the viral comedy collective Lean Squad — the latter of whom the brothers were “super fans of back in the early YouTube and Vine days.” Along with Young and Mitchell, that core group helped the brothers assemble a cast that they felt would “complement each other’s humor” and give their pilot a natural, more organic feel.

“We didn’t want people to act,” said Julien, noting that they encouraged the cast to “make the characters their own.”

“The cool thing about the social comedians is that they have their bits and characters already baked, which allows us to iterate off of that,” he added. “So, as we were thinking about how these characters are distinct and have different humor styles, cadences and personalities, we really wanted to pull from different corners of the internet and use people in bits that they’ve already kind of embraced.”

According to the brothers, everything clicked quickly once most of the cast was onboard, and the concept alone was all the buy-in they needed to get everyone excited to rally around their close-to-home story.

“Everybody was in it and bought into the project,” Julien said. “It was a couple of people’s first time in Columbus, in Ohio, and they were able to experience the Midwest and lock in. You always hear about those projects where the full cast and crew were lockstep and really invested in the story, and nobody’s ego was in the way. This really felt like what that was for a magical four-day shoot.”

If all goes well after their Sundance premiere, the Turner Brothers hope to secure a distribution partner for “FreeLance” that “sees the vision” and can help bring the remainder of the season to life. The duo has already mapped out the show’s storyboard and where they want to take it next. Now, they just need the behind-the-scenes support to push it over the finish line.

“The vision is that we show this sample size of what we can do with our city, this team, this cast, and what the potential is with the whole creator economy and ecosystem of social creators and personalities,” Julien said.

Their ultimate goal is to amplify the show’s message as widely as possible, specifically so it reaches more aspiring creators who, hopefully, see themselves in the story. With any luck, “FreeLance” will resonate in a way that makes a real difference for the future of the creator economy.

“I hope it makes people feel less alone,” Fredericks said of the pilot’s potential impact. “Sometimes life doesn’t get easier, but realizing you’re not the only one struggling, doubting or trying to figure it out, is powerful.”

“I want ‘FreeLance’ to feel like a mirror and a beacon for creatives — a reminder that this messy, uncertain phase is part of the process,” he added, “that it won’t always look like this and that you’re not behind — you’re just becoming.”

“FreeLance” premieres at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 27. Tickets for in-person and online screenings are available to order here.