Chicago-based writer Fatimah Asghar and director Sam Bailey are behind the hilarious, smart and sexy web series Brown Girls, which premiered on Open TV this past winter. Starring Nabila Hossain and Sonia Denis as best friends Leila and Patricia, who live in the largely Hispanic but hip and gentrifying Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen. Based on Asghar's real life friendship with singer Jamila Woods (who sings the show's theme song and serves as its music consultant), the show centers around two women of color (Leila is Pakistani-American Muslim, Patricia is Black) and their friends, who are also people of color and many, like Leila, are queer, too.

Brown Girls has been praised by critics and viewers for its nuanced portrayals of POC, especially two young feminist protagonists with agency over their identities, sexual and otherwise. HBO took notice, apparently, because they just signed Asghar and Bailey to a development deal. Much like their deal with Issa Rae, who took her web series Awkward Black Girl and turned it into TV's Insecure, it sounds like Asghar and Bailey, along with producers 3Arts and MXN Entertainment, will create a new series which will have the same queer AF vibes as Brown Girls. Asghar says she wants it "to be very Chicago-focused and queer folks of color–focused. And to have women of color and queer people of color be the protagonists and the antagonists in their own story."

"It's a story that folks hadn't seen before, but is relatable," Asghar told Elle. "I can't tell you the amount of times people have said, 'This is me and my best friend,' or, 'This feels like my friend group,' or, 'I can see myself in this.' Part of it is the lack of representation of many different races in Hollywood in general. And also part of it is the way these girls operate in the web series in terms of their races, their identities, their personalities, and their class background."

Ashgar also said that there are important elements to the show that she wants to keep should it be greenlit for television. "The folks in the show were not and did not have the sort of disposable income where they could go out to eat all the time or buy new clothes or not have money be a pressing concern weighing on their lives," she told Elle. "Their entire community on the show is how I think of Chicago. It's a city that is very mercurial, resourceful, and sly in a way that I love. I want to carry some of that over to television. We don't want a show that is flashy and smooth. We want a show that is gritty. That has this kind of realness to it."

You can watch all seven episodes of Brown Girls at browngirlswebseries.com now.