Jermaine Fowler To Headline & Co-Write Martial Arts Comedy In Works At Fox

EXCLUSIVE: Actor-comedian Jermaine Fowler is set to co-write, executive produce and star in an untitled single-camera comedy, which has received a script commitment at Fox.

In the half-hour project, co-written by Fowler and Zack Bernstein, after a self-inflicted fall from grace, a former jiu-jitsu champion’s (Fowler) only shot at redemption is to check his ego at the door and start from scratch at a low-rent strip-mall dojo.

Fowler started Brazilian jiu-jitsu training during Covid.

“When the pandemic hit, I had nothing to do,” he said during a January 2023 interview on The Jennifer Hudson Show. “I was bored, and I always wanted to try martial arts.”

On jiu-jitsu he said, “It’s a beautiful sport. It’s gruesome, but it’s so beautiful.”

At the time, Fowler was a white belt who had won one fight out of four.

The comedy project was originated and brought to Fox by Tooth Hurty Media, a new production company founded by Austin Sokol and Bernstein that specializes in exploring subcultures through a satirical lens across scripted, unscripted, and docu-comedy formats.

Bernstein and Sokol executive produce alongside Fowler and Sam Laybourne who serves as showrunner. Fox Entertainment Studios is the studio.

This would mark a return to network comedy for Fowler who headlined CBS’ sitcom Superior Donuts in one of his first acting gigs. He was recently seen in the FX murder mystery limited series Murder At the End of World and next stars alongside Zac Efron and John Cena in Peter Farrelly’s comedy feature Ricky Stanicky. Upcoming films also include Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, Sting and Faces of Death. Fowler is repped by Entertainment 360, UTA and Yorn Levine.

Laybourne most recently executive produced the third season of Acapulco at Apple+. He was previously an executive producer on Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist at NBC and co-created and executive produced The Michael J. Fox Show for NBC. Laybourne began his career on Arrested Development. He is represented by UTA, Kaplan Perrone and Kim Stenton at Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobasser Younger & Light.

Tooth Hurty Media is repped by Gersh.