Monica Kelley is a 25-year veteran of the entertainment industry. During that time she has worked, studied and learned from the best in the business. She is an accomplished writer, producer, director and expert at what she does. She pitched a show unlike the popular competition based reality music shows that focus on the winners and losers. She created a show that focused on individuals who have overcome adversity to pursue their artistic dreams — people who need a mentoring to get them across the finish line.
Chasing The Dream is a performance reality series designed to mentor emerging talent in underserved
communities, who have had little to no access to specialized training or professional opportunities.
Each week in this eight-part series we’ll identify these amazing talents and share their incredible stories. The focus of this show is to encourage involvement in an environment that is positive and entertaining, while serving to support these talented individuals from all around the country. In every episode two celebrity mentors will guest star. After all the celebrities have viewed the audition videos submissions, each celebrity will surprise their mentee and then give them an unimaginable opportunity to gain wisdom from a master to chase their dream! Hands on training will be given to the mentee whom the celebrity has personally chosen based on their talent and career goals. In each episode both celebrity mentors will critique performances, give notes and admonitions of technical errors, and any other assistance needed to help perfect their mentee’s performance.
At the end of each week’s episode the mentee will perform live on the ‘Dream Chaser’s Stage’, and then be presented with a potentially life-transforming “hand up.” The “hand up” will be unique to the career goals, circumstances, and specific needs of each mentee.
Premiere: Saturday, July 8th, on NBCU-owned television stations.
A native New Yorker, Monica Sutton-Kelley studied at Syracuse University’s School of Visual & Performing Arts, where she received her B.F.A. After graduation, Monica began working at HBO, as an
associate producer for various shows.
Simultaneously, during her free time, she also produced music videos for several R&B and Hip-Hop artists on Warner Bros. Records. Following that she worked at the Chisolm-Mingo Group, an award winning advertising agency in New York City, where she produced commercials for several major companies, and their diversity divisions. She then went on to work at BET, where she was the Senior
Producer of Creative Services.
In 2009, Monica wrote a military reality series, which was green-lighted and developed by ABC Television. Monica has now written and sold original shows to both ABC and NBC Universal television networks and secured a production deal with Sony Television for a dramatic series, which she
both created and wrote. Now with a vision of launching her own platform for family television
programming, Monica signed a deal in 2022 to write, produce and oversee sponsorship of an
original show idea for NBCUniversal on their new network, NBCU LX. “Chasing the Dream,” a
reality series aimed at transforming the lives of “emerging talent in underserved communities”
around the country, by partnering them with major celebrities who are there to mentor and
champion their journey is the first of several projects she is currently working on. The launch
episode of “Chasing the Dream” will air on to NBCU and Peacock for 8 weeks beginning Sunday,
July 9th through August 27th, 2023, at 8pm. This series will also stream nationwide on the
following platforms: Apple TV, Roku, YouTube TV, FuboTV, Samsung TV Plus, and Hulu, which
gives this series a footprint of 158MM.
About the Author Ann is a freelance writer who started her professional career at the NY Trend more than two decades ago. Ann has since gone on to write for a number of major outlets including: Black Enterprise, Essence, MadameNoire, Pathfinders, Frequent Flier, Playboy, The Source, Girl, Upscale, For Harriet, The Network Journal, AFKInsider, Africa Strictly Business, AFKTravel, among others. |