Hollywood’s favorite power couple is making moves behind the camera. Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade have signed on to executive produce the television adaptation of The Education of Kia Greer, a novel by writer Alanna Bennett. The announcement was shared by Bennett herself on Instagram, sending fans of both the book and the couple into an immediate frenzy. It is the kind of pairing that feels almost too perfect — a story about fame, family, and self-discovery, brought to life by two people who know a thing or two about all three.
Bennett, who has writing credits on XO, Kitty and Roswell, New Mexico, brings both television experience and a novelist’s heart to the project. Her book centers on the second-youngest daughter of a famous family, whose relationship with a pop star pulls back the curtain on the entertainment industry and forces her to question everything she thought she knew about fame. It is a coming-of-age story with real teeth, and in Union and Wade’s hands, it is bound to land with power on the small screen.
Who Is Alanna Bennett and What Is The Education of Kia Greer About?
Alanna Bennett is not a newcomer to the world of storytelling. Before The Education of Kia Greer, she built a steady career as a television writer, contributing to projects that resonate with young, diverse audiences. Her work on XO, Kitty — Netflix’s spin-off of the beloved To All the Boys franchise — demonstrated her ability to craft layered, emotionally rich narratives that speak directly to the experience of young women figuring out who they are. That same instinct is clearly at the core of her debut novel.
The Education of Kia Greer follows a young woman born into a high-profile family who finds herself entangled with a pop star. What begins as a romance quickly becomes a reckoning, as Kia starts to see the fame machine for what it truly is — and begins to question her place within it. It is the kind of story that feels urgent right now, as conversations about celebrity culture, identity, and the cost of public life dominate everything from social media to award season coverage.
The fact that Bennett chose to announce the news herself on Instagram speaks to how personal this project is to her. Furthermore, having Union and Wade attached as executive producers signals that the adaptation is being treated not just as entertainment, but as a story worth telling with real intention and care.
Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade Step Into Their Producing Era
This is not Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade’s first step into the producing space, but it is one of their most high-profile literary adaptations to date. Union has long been celebrated not just as an actress but as a creative force who is deliberate about the stories she chooses to tell and the platforms she lends her name to. Wade, similarly, has been building a presence in entertainment and media well beyond his basketball legacy.
Together, they represent exactly the kind of producing power that Black stories need behind them — cultural credibility, industry relationships, and a genuine investment in seeing Black women’s narratives handled with the complexity they deserve. A story like The Education of Kia Greer, which sits at the intersection of celebrity culture, Black girlhood, and self-determination, could not ask for a more fitting home.
Their involvement also raises the project’s profile considerably. As executive producers, Union and Wade will help shape everything from the tone of the adaptation to the talent brought in front of and behind the camera. For fans of the novel, that is genuinely exciting news.
A Wave of Black Women’s Novels Is Heading to Your TV Screen
The adaptation of The Education of Kia Greer does not exist in isolation — it is part of a much larger, deeply exciting movement. Right now, a remarkable wave of novels by Black women and Black authors is being fast-tracked for television across major streaming platforms, and the momentum shows no signs of slowing down.
Amy DuBois Barnett’s If I Ruled The World, which dropped just last month, is already being adapted into a TV series by Hulu, with Lee Daniels co-writing the pilot. The drama centers on a young Black editor navigating the competitive and often misogynistic world of magazine publishing in the nineties — a premise that feels both timely and long overdue. Meanwhile, Kennedy Ryan’s Before I Let Go, part of the beloved Skyland series, is in development at Peacock.
The list keeps growing. Tia Williams’ Seven Days in June — a fan-favorite romance about two Black authors who reconnect at a Brooklyn literary conference after a passionate teen affair — has been in development for television since 2024. Deesha Philyaw’s The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, a National Book Award finalist, has also been commissioned for a future series. Taken together, these projects represent a seismic shift in how Black women’s stories are being valued by the entertainment industry.
From Page to Screen: Why These Black Stories Are Resonating Right Now
For years, readers have been passing these books around in group chats, staying up too late finishing chapters, and wondering why no one had made them into television yet. That wait, it seems, is finally over. The stories that Black women have been discussing around kitchen tables and in book clubs for years are now being recognized for exactly what they have always been — prestige material.
Krystal Marquis’ The Davenports, a lush romantic YA novel set among three young women navigating Black society in early 1900s Chicago, was optioned by The Gilded Age co-showrunner Sonja Warfield and And Just Like That… executive producer Susan Fales-Hill. The creative pedigree attached to that project alone speaks to how seriously the industry is now taking these adaptations.
What connects all of these projects is a commitment to showing Black women in their full complexity — in ballgowns and slip dresses, with generational wealth and hard-won ambitions, in love stories and coming-of-age moments that center their interiority rather than their struggle. That shift in perspective, from margin to center, is not just good storytelling. It is long overdue.
What Fans Can Expect From The Education of Kia Greer Adaptation
Details on where The Education of Kia Greer will ultimately land — whether on a major streamer or a cable network — have not yet been confirmed. However, with Union and Wade’s producing power and Bennett’s television writing experience driving the project forward, the adaptation is in exceptionally capable hands. Fans of the novel can reasonably expect the spirit of the book to be preserved: the sharp observations about fame, the emotional core of Kia’s journey, and the cultural richness that made readers fall in love with it in the first place.
As the adaptation wave continues to gain speed, projects like this one serve as a reminder that the best stories were always there — they just needed the right people to champion them. Union and Wade have made clear, through this project and their broader work, that they intend to be exactly those people.
For anyone who has not yet read The Education of Kia Greer, now is the perfect time to pick it up. Because if this adaptation follows the path of the others currently in development, the television version will be arriving before long — and you will want to have read the book first.