The British comedy-drama series ‘Dreaming Whilst Black’ stars Adjani Salmon as Kwabena, a young Black man caught in a dead-end recruitment job who dreams of making it big as a filmmaker with his video producer pal from film school Amy. He is struggling to cope with expectations from his family, who want him to have a secure job, and other harsh realities of life when an opportunity too good to pass up knocks on his door.
The comedy programme, which was created by Adjani Salmon, Max Evans, Natasha Jatania, and Laura Seixas, boasts riveting and humorous onscreen performances from a strong ensemble cast that includes Adjani Salmon, Dani Moseley, Alexander Owen, Babirye Bukilwa, and Tom Stourton. Given the themes of chasing a great desire and going against one’s family, which are not uncommon in real life, many viewers may wonder if ‘Dreaming Whilst Black’ is based on a genuine story.
Dreaming Whilst Black is Based on Writer’s Real-Life Experiences
Adjani Salmon, Max Evans, Natasha Jatania, Laura Seixas, Ali Hughes, and Yemi Oyefuwa, the show’s screenwriters, coupled their industry expertise and great writing talents with their creative brains to bring the events they were inspired by to life. However, as one of the creators/screenwriters, Salmon, claimed, not a big percentage of the programme was autobiographical, but some of the protagonist’s experiences depicted in the show were inspired by Salmon and one of his friends’ experiences.
Salmon went into more depth on the episode when asked if Kwabena’s experiences in the series were based on his own during a conversation with Vice in late April 2021. “Well, I grew up in Jamaica, where racism is something they teach you in school, and I’ll never forget coming (to London) to uni and suddenly I can’t get into a club that I want to,” he explained. I just assumed the bouncer was a d-kh-d, right? Because the bouncers where I hail from are Black and may be d-kh—s at times. So, for the first time, I was like, wait a second, when my friend started stating he was racist. This is what the men are talking about! So this was like a wake-up call for me, because once you see something, you can’t unsee it.”
Aside from Salmon, one of the filmmakers, Koby Adom was able to draw various parallels between the events of ‘Dreaming Whilst Black’ and his own life. Adom was questioned about the aspects from the series to which he could relate in a September 2023 interview with Screen Rant. “Ever so much,” he said. It’s so true. Literally. I’ve done corporate job where I’m treated a certain way, and I’ve worked in the industry.” He also said that he had some financial troubles, which made it all the more genuine for him, to the point where he couldn’t believe he was speaking from a place of introspection. In his own words, it was a bizarre event for him.
Adom emphasised how much the tale, especially the love story, is based on fact. “How do you sustain love when you don’t have money because you’re chasing your dreams?” he continued. If anything, that’s probably what I’m most interested in. ‘How are you expected to date in these circumstances?’ you know? So, doing that sequence with the pals was fun.” Considering all of the aforementioned facts, it is safe to say that ‘Dreaming Whilst Black’ is loosely based on real-life incidents.
