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Posted: 2021-09-18T12:00:07Z | Updated: 2022-07-20T20:48:32Z

If the phrases legacy or You got me fucked up have made it onto your social media timeline a bit more than usual, its most likely due to one of HBOs newest reality shows, Sweet Life: Los Angeles.

The show, executive produced by Issa Rae, follows a group of seven friends living in South Los Angeles: Tylynn Burns, Jordan Bentley, Briana Jones, PJae Compton, Amanda Scott, Cheryl Des Vignes and Jerrold Smith II. The group lives the lives youd expect from friends in their early to mid-20s: turnt up, messy, chaotic, dramatic and confusing, yet determined to make the most out of life and get it right. Add in a couple of birthday trips, some real conversations and relationship debates, and youve got yourself a show.

Sweet Life is a ride, an addictive one at that. Thats largely courtesy of showrunner and reality TV veteran Leola Westbrook. Westbrook is the producer of numerous reality TV series, including College Hill and Americas Next Top Model, and is the mastermind behind several iconic moments in TV, including the infamous trek for cheesecake across the Brooklyn Bridge on Making the Band 2.

The Chicago native said when she was first approached about the show, she jumped at the opportunity. I had not been inspired as a producer like that in a very long time, she told HuffPost. Westbrook said Sweet Life, which many on social media have likened to Baldwin Hills, shows a side of South L.A. that often goes ignored on TV.

I loved being able to open up a window into the community, she said. And I will not disparage any project that has told the story of the South L.A. community it feels [overall] very myopic in the way that South L.A. has been told. And thats why I feel like [Sweet Life] is so exciting.

On Thursday, the series rounded out its first season with a reunion-esque Group Chat episode, but Westbrook made it clear that she has big plans for Sweet Life. The showrunner spoke with HuffPost about tapping into her TV roots, the burden she carries working in reality while Black, and working with Rae to turn the show into an immersive experience.

HuffPost: Congrats on Sweet Life. Youve had quite the career in reality television. I also have to say, College Hill was one of my top reality shows of all time. So when I saw your name attached to this, as the showrunner, it was really amazing to see. What was the journey as far as getting involved with Sweet Life?

Westbrook: When this project came to me, we were still in lockdown mode. This was September, and all the uncertainty, and pretty much our industry had shut down. So nobody was back yet. And I kind of had taken that time while we were all staying at home to have one of those moments in my life to grow my epithet, what I wanted to be, everything Ive wanted to say as a producer in the genre. And I felt like I had not hit it yet. And trust and believe there are some projects there that I will hold near and dear to my heart forever. One of them being Making the Band; I was cheesecake, we did that walk to Brooklyn.

And I sat there and I felt like, Have I said everything I needed to say, have I been able to produce in the way that I feel at this stage? Everything has kind of been been there, done that and is a bit derivative. And then I thought maybe Ill just go to graduate school. Maybe Ill get the young producers coming up, and Ill just maybe start that way. And then, sure enough, as I make the curve, the curve made me.

I remember they sent over the document, and I was like, is this for real? Because you got a group of friends that have known each other since the days of Underoos. You have that history of them going to sleepovers and roller skating, all that stuff. So they have to derive pivotal change points in our lives because you shed friends, 16, 20, 21, you go off to college, you shed friends, you gain new ones. These people have been in each others lives for that whole span of time. What a rare treat that is.