Watch the trailer for new LGBT series ‘Danny the Manny’
Exploring the life of a little boy called Quinn, Danny the ‘Manny’ (that’s a male nanny to you and me), discovers the kid he is babysitting likes to cross-dress.
Part-time baby sitter Danny (played by 23-year-old actor Patrick Reilly) gets stuck in a dilemma as his young charge, Quinn (played by 6-year-old child actor Bradley Bundie) reveals his non-conforming taste, leaving Danny stuck between keeping his job for rent money or bailing out.
The new web-series follows Danny’s dilemma as he seeks friends for advice whilst trying to pursue his acting career in Hollywood.
Not wanting to lose out on the rent money, Danny worries if he is doing the right thing by helping the boy or if it’s going to harm his upbringing. Should he tell the boy’s mother?
Director Mika Roma, who created the new comedy, revealed that the show is inspired by his own childhood experiences.
“I remember cross-dressing a lot as a kid. My sister and I were close in age, and I always wore her clothes and played with her toys,” he told Gay Star News.
“I’ve also been a babysitter since high school. Nannying got me thinking about how we raise kids nowadays and how it differs from when I was little.”
Roma also felt it was also important to cast Reilly, who is gay, as Danny as he didn’t want someone to “perform” their sexuality.
“I didn’t want someone to feel like they had to ‘perform’ their sexuality. It would feel weird asking someone to play gay. What does that even look like? It can get offensive pretty quickly. Besides, there are plenty of roles out there for straight actors already.”
The series comes into light with the big question at the moment on the way we promote and teach gender norms and roles to children; with many celebrities such as Adele promoting an open-minded approach to their kids’ gender non-comforming behaviours.
Roma hopes the series will make viewers think to the “extent to which we define kids by their gender.”
He adds: “It goes beyond being queer too, when adults meet a little girl for the first time, more often than not they’ll call them ‘pretty’ or ‘cute’ right away. Girls internalise these comments and can learn to place more value on their appearances than their noggins. Conversely, boys are told to toughen up, to hide their emotions.
“Why can’t we just raise kids as humans? Why do we have to constrain them based on our own biases?”
The new series will be available on YouTube from the 9 June.
Check out the show’s website and Facebook page for the latest.
Words: James Jefferson
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