For a story that is so close to your heart, how did you go about casting the roles?

Melissa, who plays Frieda, has been with the project since day one, since I filmed the original pilot five years ago.

I originally wrote the script with another actor in mind but they were unavailable. Then Melissa walked into the audition, and she took the character in a whole new direction, and I embraced that.

I learned to be open to her interpretation of the character. And since then we’ve all grown, and Melissa and I have ended up working together on other TV shows. I learned to know her a lot better. It’s good to know my actors if I intend to write for them, so I can imbue the characters with the characteristics of the actor.

Another actor I’ve worked with is Gershwin [Mias]. I was specifically able to write for him because my mind was made up that he was the perfect actor for the part, even before Showmax said yes. And then when we started playing around with his wardrobe – which was inspired by Johnny Depp in Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas – he truly transformed into the character.

The only actor I hadn’t worked with before is Bianca. I originally wrote the character of Julia to play myself, as I did in the pilot. But when I saw Bianca’s tape, I prayed about it and asked God to give me objectiveness, and let me see the art. And this allowed me to see that Bianca was right for the role, because she was not like any of the actors we saw and it showed the diversity of people in Worcester.

Bianca shows the more English side of the people. I love how she brings such gentleness to the character of Julia. But there is also this element of sadness because she is unlucky in love. You

just want her to find happiness.