Culture Shifters Oct. 22, 2024

BET+ Was A Streaming Underdog. Diarra Kilpatrick Changed That.

Written By Candice Frederick Photography by Tara Pixley

The "Diarra From Detroit" star talks about navigating the stigma attached to the platform, mobilizing for Kamala Harris and liberating herself as a Black storyteller.

This profile is part of our Culture Shifters series, which highlights people who are changing the way we think about the world around us. To read about our other Culture Shifters, return to the list here .

If youve ever attended an international film festival, you probably already know that red-carpet affairs for TV series are rare at them. And when they do happen, theyre not often well-attended. Thats especially true for a show created by and starring a Black woman and even more so when its on BET+, a streamer whose marketing dollars pale in comparison to those of its more mainstream competitors.

But youd never know any of this from the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Diarra From Detroit in June 2023. Folks lined up behind the velvet ropes to get into the jam-packed SVA Theater in Manhattan for the debut of the latest from Diarra Kilpatrick, known previously for her criminally underrated 2017 satirical series American Koko.

Diarra From Detroit is a hysterical dark comedy about a soon-to-be divorced schoolteacher (Kilpatrick) whose Tinder date turns her so far out that when he up and disappears she leaps down a rabbit hole and into Detroits criminal underbelly to find him. Shenanigans, obviously, ensue.

Though at its festival premiere you could hear cackling down every aisle, there was nary a word about the series again until it premiered on BET+ in March of this year.

Yeah, it took a second, Kilpatrick agreed while on a video call with me from her home in the San Francisco Bay Area. Just to do anything from that platform is really tough.

Thats mostly due to BET+s marketing constraints, she said. While the acclaim eventually began trickling in, fans still lamented how little the show had been publicized.

Ive seen on Twitter people being like, this show hasnt been promoted enough, Kilpatrick said. Had the series not been as embraced as it was out of Tribeca more than people were expecting she added BET+ might not have been able to find more resources to promote it.

They actually did promote the show more than they normally would, Kilpatrick continued. Do we have HBOs marketing budget? We did not, nor does the platform have that thing where people are going, What are they doing? Whats coming up next?

Diarra from Detroit developed an audience, including critics and award pundits. But one social media comment, Kilpatrick said sarcastically, is her favorite bit of praise: This show on BET+ is actually good.

I cant help but titter when she tells me this, because I know what shes about to say next. And I feel the same way.

Its the actually for me, she continued, genuinely surprised. And I will ask people, Why actually?

Right.