The most daring, intriguing filmmakers are those who aren’t afraid to tell diverse, unique tales. The storytellers behind the new dark comedy pilot, ‘Daddies Boi,’ are the perfect example of narrators who embrace the grit and edge of their industry.

Louie Rinaldi and Zoe Tyson created, star in and executive produced the show. The duo was joined behind the camera by director Jason Avezzano.

Together, the group is also celebrating the joy, mystery, humility and laughter that can be found within the gig desire economy that has gained notoriety in recent years. The filmmakers have shared that they created the project because they feel that the world needs more diverse and authentic stories. They added that it’s crucial to share their lived experiences, and shed light on the nuanced realities of the desire economy.

‘Daddies Boi’ follows ride-or-die best friends, Ozzie (they/them) and Billie (she/her), who are pushing 35 but still claiming to be 28. They’re desperately clinging to relevance in a city that worships youth. When Ozzie’s (Rinaldi) longtime sugar daddy, Clarke (Todd Sherry), dumps them on their supposed 28th birthday for a younger model, and Billie’s (Tyson) debt soars to new heights, the duo dives headfirst into LA’s unconventional gig market of sex work and companionship services.

Armed with multiple sugaring profiles, shifty side hustles and unhinged dates, they set their sights on a seductive new app called Daddies Boi that promises fast cash and fresh opportunities. What begins as survival spirals into a sharp, funny and emotionally raw odyssey of empowerment and peril, testing their friendship, identity and self-worth. Embracing both the grit and glam of queer nightlife, ‘Daddies Boi’ dismantles stereotypes of sex work while celebrating joy, solidarity and the complicated price of being wanted.

Rinaldi and Tyson generously took the time recently to talk about writing, starring in and producing the pilot during an interview other Zoom. Among other things, the trio discussed why they were inspired to scribe and star in the comedy, how they worked together as actors and with Avezzano as the helmer to build their characters’ arcs, and how they collaborated as producers to get the show made.

Film Factual (FF): Together, you wrote the script for the new dark comedy pilot, ‘Daddies Boi.’ What was the inspiration in scribing the script? How did you work together to develop the story?

Louie Rinaldi (LR): Well, Zoe and I have known each other for, I think, going on over 15 years now. We went to college together in Chicago. We met when we were at the ripe age of 18. We went to school for acting at DePaul (University). So we kind of already had a creative language together, having acted together, and done some other projects, too.

Then we started our production company with a play called ‘F*ck Julie’ that we wrote. It was nominated for Best Play at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. The bug bit us, and we love each now as creative partners working together, as we have that shared language.

Zoe Tyson (ZT): That’s exactly what I was going to say! We started the production company back in 2023. We kind of started working on ‘Daddies Boy’ at the start of the pandemic. Then we did our first reading around then, and went through many iterations.

We had both been working on separate projects and decided to blend them together to see what we could make.

So it’s really been something that’s been in the works for many years. We then shot at the end of 2023, and since then we’ve taken this next stage of the process of sharing it with people this past year. It’s been wonderful.

LR: Yes, it’s been so much fun. You asked about where the idea came from. Zoe and I lived together in Chicago, and I was in a play at the time, and working at a skincare store. I was like, how do I make ends meet? I want to support myself.

So we both found our way into the daddy-dating, sugar baby situation. We had so many interesting, bizarre, funny and sometimes scary experiences.

We were like, wow, it’s just so rich of material. This is something that Zoe and I know so well, and we haven’t seen anything like our experiences. Sex work is often represented in a kind of ‘Law & Order: SVU’ light. So we wanted to breathe some humor and joy into it, and focus on the community and the friendship.

FF: Once you created the idea for the show, how did you approach penning the script together?

ZT: Well, we created two different iterations. Louie was working on an initial project that was the very first version of this script. I was working on something else, which was about what it’s like being a nanny and working in gig culture.

There was so much overlap, in terms of our own stories, of course, as well as what we were writing about. We were writing about the grind and nature of living in Los Angeles, and trying to make it work in whatever form or fashion we could.

So we meshed them together, and worked with a really amazing woman named Jessica Blank. She helped us take it from all of our exciting ideas into polishing it into one complete pilot. That was in the middle of the pandemic.

From that point forward, we started putting together our team. We also crowdfunded through Kickstarter, which was really exciting, and a little stressful, a few weeks before we shot.

LR: It was a long road, but we are here now, and we can finally share it with the world.

ZT: Yes, absolutely.

FF: Going back to including some humor into the subject, which is usually presented in a more dramatic way on TV and in movie, like you mentioned, what was that experience like for you both? How did you create the more light-hearted, humorous moments for ‘Daddies Boi?’

LR: I think that we felt like not only was it unique, it’s also so inherently funny to us. We have so many of these stories that we laugh about, like at a dinner party. People always want to hear these stories. Anytime we would bring up one of these stories publicly, people always wanted to hear more. They were always laughing with us as well. So we decided to take that angle and focus on that.

In terms of comedy, my style of writing with Zoe is always finding humor in a project, even if it’s a darker subject to some other projects. We always really find the humor within the situations.

Our language as friends is that we’re cutting each other off non-stop. We also knew each other as not only writers, but also as performers. So we knew that by doubling down on the performances, we’d be able to bring the vibrant, colorful and funny world that we were working in to the screen.

ZT: Yes, absolutely. I think it was really liberating to not always see something that can be trapped in ‘Law & Order: SVU,’ like Louie said. It instead shows

these people going through daddy dating to bring in their extra income.

The idea is they are so much more than this particular role that they’re servicing. The reality is this is a friendship story. It’s about community and finding pockets of people you can get along with and just laugh with overall.

I think there’s a lot that I think we have to reframe through a lens of finding humor where we can. There is so much there, as there is so much darkness in what’s happening around us right now.

LR: Yes, I agree. I think it’s empowering. It’s giving us power and ownership over the situation and our feelings, in terms of the characters’ perspectives.

So presenting it like that felt way more empowering than choosing another avenue. I always find that if you introduce people with some humor and lightness, it opens a door to accessing the deeper things, as well.

That’s the world we live in. One moment you could be laughing, and the next moment, there’s a big heaviness. So we wanted to be in that reality, but our show is definitely not quite reality.

FF: While you were working on the script for the story for the pilot, what was it like creating your characters that you went on to play on the show?

LR: I think that we always loved the idea of also starring on the show. The initial jumping off point was that it was going to be a project for both of us to act in. It was also a vehicle for our stories, as well as for us as performers.

As we said before, we worked on different iterations for a couple years. At one point, we were like, okay, maybe we won’t be in it, in order to sell this idea.

But then we decided we really wanted to bet on ourselves. We knew that we were the right vessels to tell the story, as we were writing it so inherently in our actual voices.

Zoe probably has more to say about coming up with who these people are, and how they’re different than us. They’re based on us, but they’re not quite entirely us.

So to really deepen their relationship, we actually wrote a handful of backstories to experiment with on set. We then chose which one felt the most authentic for this story.

ZT: Absolutely. Like what Louie said, I feel like it was liberating to create these characters, especially as actors, because that was our initial background. You can get typecast, especially when you’re going in for these smaller, one-off roles or guest appearances.

So the idea of getting to play something that was not necessarily against type, but an expanded identity of a character that you don’t often get unless you’re getting to lead your own show, was amazing. We thought, well, let’s get in there and do it. Being able to create something that feels completely original plays to our own strengths.

FF: The pilot’s support cast includes Todd Sherry, Tarek Ziad and Milan Patel. How did you approach casting the rest of the cast for the show?

ZT: That was just so much fun. We worked with an amazing, casting director, Steven Tylor O’Connor, who’s become a friend. He is wonderfully gifted at being able to see the script on the page and get a clear idea of who these people are as characters.

Also, we weren’t even thinking of certain actors to play these characters. We had people brought in that initially we may have thought, I don’t see them in this world at all. But then they’d knock it out of the park with the audition.

We also brought in people who were friends of friends. It was a really cumulative effort, in terms of using Steven as an incredible casting director, and then using our own network of folks who we knew to bring in to play in the world.

It was really important for both of us to be able to bring in people from different ages, backgrounds and racial profiles. We wanted to also to see everyone from the LGBTQ community who was interested in being involved in the project.

We wanted to make sure that we were telling a story that’s authentic and something different than a lot of other shows that we’re currently seeing on TV.

FF: Once all the actors were cast, how did you approach working together to build the characters and story?

LR: Well, not to speak for Zoe, but I think it was a big learning curve for both of us. This was the largest budget and set that we as creators were running.

It was a lot of hats to wear. We were producing, writing and acting in it. I think that was an interesting balance to work with on set.

The show’s director, Jason Avezzano, who we love so much and is a near and dear friend, actually directed our play, ‘F*ck Julie.’ He is just such an amazing support system.

We knew that he was going to give us the direction and support we needed, and be the liaison for the whole team. He really held it together. I think that was one of our biggest things that helped us surrender the day of, and let us live in that character world.

One of my favorite moments on set was when I got to be behind the camera and watch Zoe improvise. It’s the whole scene where she’s at the bar with her date. A lot of that is scripted, but some of it is not. I felt so proud.

I saw her character, Billy, come to life. It was really astonishing, and a really cool moment I won’t forget.

ZT: That’s so sweet! I hadn’t thought about this before, Louie, but obviously, it was crunch time. Even though the budget was larger than what we’ve had in the past, we’re still talking about something that’s micro-micro budget.

So, we didn’t have a lot of lead time. We shot three nights shoots in a row. We were shooting about six pages of dialogue a day, which is a lot.

We didn’t get a ton of rehearsal time ourselves. But I think being the writers made it so that sometimes it was hard to take off that writer brain hat. It was in our body.

So the story was already living in us in a different way than I think it would have if it had been material that we hadn’t created.

LR: I would totally agree. I think we didn’t take it for granted. But I think showing up, it was like, oh, right, we’ve been sitting with these scenes and lines for years.

We created some changes, but we were ready to go. It was exciting to find the characters on set, as well. I think since we see so much for the arc of these characters, it would be so exciting to show where they’re headed. Developing characters to be so specific and nuanced is something we love to do. It’s just a cool way to showcase these people.

FF: Like you mentioned, Jason Avezzano directed the pilot. What was your experience like working with him during production?

ZT: It was amazing. Jason is, like Louie said, a near and dear friend and a really trusted collaborator.

We previously worked together on (the 2018 dramedy short film,) ‘Best Friend,’ which was a two-person project. So like ‘Daddies Boi,’ ‘Best Friend’ was a co-lead project. We worked really closely together to figure out the energy of the piece and how it moved.

So when it came to hire someone to shoot ‘Daddies Boi,’ we knew we had to get Jason to direct it. No one can run a more positive, upbeat, energized set than he can.

His understanding of us, the rhythm of how we act and how we create together really allowed it to feel like we could go to town. But he could still step in and shape things as we needed.

So it was really a pretty fluid process, I would say. What do you think, Louie?

LR: I would say the same thing. I think because we’d worked together before, and we had such a foundation of knowing and loving each other as humans, I think it was so easy to surrender any and all reins, and to just put that trust into Jason.

We talked to him about the project years before we filmed. We approached him, knowing we would want him to be involved in a collaborative way.

He also really had a rich, beautiful understanding of the project. He was like, “This is your creative project, so I don’t want to step on any feet. I just want to support you where I can.”

So he was the perfect person to do that, because we were exploring the roles of executive producer, showrunner, creator and star. To have someone you can fully trust in that situation is so helpful and meaningful. He went above and beyond.

FF: Speaking of producing, you both also served as executive producers on ‘Daddies Boi.’ What was the experience like of working together as producers?

ZT: It was all very new! There’s an idea from Brené Brown called FFT, which stands for F*cking First Time. The idea is that anytime you’re doing for the first time, it’s going to feel scary and painful. You feel embarrassed and a little confused. There can be shame, and you also feel like you don’t know enough about what you’re doing.

So I think that coming back to that really helped, because that’s exactly what would come up. Of course, all the joy and excitement about what we were doing was present.

Since we had amazing producers and all of these people on our side, it felt like, as EPs, we were learning as we were going. I think that we both feel like at this point, we were so capable of moving forward. But when we started, I had no idea the amount of work that we were going to take on and learn from.

LR: Yes, it was a different energy shift. As an actor and a writer, there’s a feeling of, will they say yes? Wait, let’s wait to get a yes, and then it’s a go.

hen producing, it feels like you’re making it happen in the moment. It’s very action-orientated and creative-minded. There were so much training and experiences in the creative Type B way. I think to find that kind of attentiveness, in terms of sending emails and communication, is so difficult. In terms of producing, I’ve learned there a lot of emails.

I think that that was part of that FFT for me, too. I think because we challenged ourselves, and Zoe and I have such a strong friendship as a foundation, I think we’re totally stronger now and better for it. I also think we’ve really learned how to make things happen.

We’ve also learned how to not only have our feet grounded in the creative world, but also in the business aspect, as well. There’s also a power to it, too, so I think it’s going be hard to let that go on another project.

FF: ‘Daddies Boi’s pilot is screening at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival. What does it mean to you both that the project is being featured at the festival?

ZT: It has been wonderful. We world premiered at Newfest back in October, which was an incredible experience. It was so wonderful.

I think that really laid the foundation for how we wanted to go about the festival circuit. So playing at Slamdance is so thrilling. It feels like we figured out how we are coming together as a team to celebrate all of this work, promote it and get creative in terms of merchandise, for example. We’re also sharing things on our social media to really make sure we’re able to get this exciting news out.

Our screenings are both entirely sold out at this point, which is really exciting. We’re opening Slamdance, and we also opened at Newfest. So it’s really great to feel like we can be trusted to start things off.

LR: Yes, we’re excited for Slamdance. It was one of our dream festivals, especially for our L.A. premiere.

We’re so grateful and excited that we were accepted to Newfest. So we said, “Let’s see where it takes us.” Now we’ve been getting responses to such other festivals as Slamdance in such a bountiful way, and we’re so grateful for it!

Editor’s Note: ‘Daddies Boi’ is screening in the Episodes section of this year’s Slamdance Film Festival. The pilot will debut tonight, February 20, 2026 at 9:15 pm PT at Landmark Theaters Sunset in LA. The pilot’s second screening at the festival will take place tomorrow, February 21 at Landmark Theaters Sunset. Both screenings are currently sold out. For more information on ‘Daddies Boi,’ visit is page on Slamdance’s official website.