A U.S. husband-and-wife filmmaking team behind an independently produced television drama about faith, money, political influence and power inside a Black megachurch is taking its series to Africa, with Nigeria among its next targets.
Eric “Cinnamon” Brown and Natasha Brown, founders of Richmond, Virginia-based Cinnamon Brown Entertainment, say they want Sundays After Church to become more than entertainment.
They see the series as a vehicle for exploring Black identity, power and accountability across the African diaspora, while using filmmaking to create jobs and build what they describe as a Black-owned economic ecosystem.
The six-episode drama follows Sandra Clayton, a woman handpicked to become the wife of a megachurch pastor. She enters the church with a naïve view of the institution, only to discover that it is not what it appears to be.
The church has what its leaders consider a righteous agenda, but the methods used to pursue it are questionable.
“It’s supposed to be controversial,” Eric Brown told Pluboard in an interview. “I wrote it so that it puts a mirror up to certain things that are done in the church and the audience have to decide, are you for the good that goes in the church or are you for the bad?”
“If you’re really about protecting the bad, you won’t like the show,” he said. “And they’ll see themselves in that.”
Black power story
The Browns believe the show’s themes can resonate strongly in Africa, where churches occupy important social, political and economic spaces.
“The Black church is very pivotal, or it used to be in the Black community here, for political access, for economics, for family building, for everything,” Brown said. “And we see that happening across the African continent too.”
The couple said the positive reception to church dramas such as Greenleaf convinced them there was an audience for a similar story, but with an additional layer of Black empowerment.
Brown said the church in the series is also a “microcosm” of wider struggles for independence and freedom.
The show’s broader objective, he said, is to portray Black people as positive, competent and complex rather than through the one-dimensional stereotypes he believes dominate much of mainstream media.
“I want Black people to see the art of the possible regarding independence,” he said.
Natasha Brown said the series is also about encouraging Black audiences to become comfortable with exercising power and demanding accountability from political and religious leaders.
“If we are holding our leaders, our political leaders and our religious leaders accountable, I believe in the Bible, that’s what we should be doing,” she said.
Why Africa – and why Nigeria?
The Browns are taking the series to African audiences, starting with Ghana, and plan to travel to Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.
Their Africa outreach has been helped by the African Diaspora Network, through which they connected with Ghanaian-Canadian correspondent Emma Ansah, who became a fan of the series and helped establish media connections for the filmmakers.
Nigeria is among their priorities. “We would love to come to Nigeria as well,” Brown said, adding that they have already reached out to people in Nigeria’s film industry.
The company is planning an international screening of Sundays After Church in Ghana in January 2027.
But the Browns’ ambitions go beyond screenings. “In five years, we want to be shooting episodes in Africa,” Brown said. Their plan is to produce four seasons in the United States and another four in Africa.
The broader goal is to use filmmaking as a bridge between Black Americans and Africans and eventually build businesses beyond film.
“The show is meant to bridge the gap between Black Americans and the African diaspora at large,” Brown said.
He said Black Americans returning to Africa must also respect the differences between the communities rather than simply importing American assumptions.
“Black Americans understand we’re returning to the continent, but we’re different and we have to respect those differences,” he said.
Brown compared the process to the biblical promised land, arguing that Black Americans should avoid bringing “all that old stuff” with them and instead work with Africans to build something new.
His vision extends beyond filmmaking. “Let’s make everyone’s lives better in Africa so that this is the place to be,” he said. “Being African is a positive thing. You’re proud of it. You take pride in it.”
“Like white people have social capital. I want us to have Black social capital where it has weight within ourselves.”
Industry beyond a series
That ambition mirrors what the Browns are already trying to build in Richmond. Cinnamon Brown Entertainment was established to develop a local production ecosystem involving actors, writers, directors, cinematographers, editors, musicians and technical professionals.
The company has previously produced the independent feature films Cuffed and Toxic, with Sundays After Church representing its most ambitious project.
Natasha Brown said the company deliberately works with Richmond creatives who might otherwise struggle to gain opportunities on larger productions.
“We’ve been able to provide them with opportunities so they can work on directing, work on cinematography, and we’re building this inner community where we are supporting each other,” she said.
Businesses including theatres and gyms also provided locations free of charge, helping the production operate on a lean budget. Natasha described the approach as “guerrilla style filmmaking”.
The Browns financed the first season themselves and are now raising money for a second.
“We paid for it ourselves because this kind of show, white people are not going to give you money to do it,” Brown said.
He said some Black investors were also reluctant to take the risk, prompting the couple to prove they could take a project from conception through production and distribution before seeking larger investment.
Their advice to aspiring filmmakers is to start small. “Do skits, learn,” Brown said.
Creators can begin with friends, a phone and basic editing tools, build an audience and demonstrate that they can deliver before seeking larger financing.
“You have to demonstrate competence,” he said.
For the Browns, ownership is central to that model. Brown argues that much of the media serving Black audiences is now controlled by larger corporations, limiting creators’ control over which stories get produced and distributed.
“They decide what you see,” he said. “If we own the stories, we can tell them our way, the way we want to, and get the message to the people.”
From spies to church politics
Eric Brown’s unusual career has also influenced the series. He began in television, moved into information technology and later worked for the U.S. government training spies. He subsequently spent about a decade working in Washington politics and television on Capitol Hill during the Bill Clinton administration.
Those experiences, he said, exposed him to the political manoeuvring and personalities that eventually found their way into Sundays After Church.
“Meeting all those wild people gave me more ideas for where the show could go because I saw the art of the possible,” he said.
Natasha Brown brings a business and finance background, including government procurement.
“I write every check,” she said. “I watch every dollar and I look at every contract.”
The couple say those complementary backgrounds have helped them approach filmmaking as both a creative undertaking and an economic project.
Sundays After Church is currently streaming on Amazon, Apple TV, Tubi and The Indie Tube, according to the company. The series won Best Pilot at the 2025 Virginia Black Film Festival and was selected for screening at the Toronto Pan African Film Festival in August 2026.
The Browns now want to take the next step: move the production itself across the Atlantic.
“If you want us in Nigeria, let us know,” Brown said. “We’ll go.”
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