We’ve all had our share of roommates. But chances are, you’ve had at least one roommate from the pit of hell.
My Roommate’s an Escort is an original comedy series created by and starring Trish Rainone and Katie Uhlmann. It follows the misadventures of Heather, a non-confrontational, small-town girl from Sault Ste. Marie, as she tries to figure out whether her new roommate Kesha is an escort.
Instead of confronting Kesha about her employment situation, Heather tries a variety of passive-aggressive tactics to find out more about Kesha’s past. Each time Heather attempts to get closer to the truth, she ends up getting further from it and consequently gets dragged into the comedic world of the sketchy characters involved in Kesha’s life.
We caught up with Rainone & Uhlmann this week.
SDTC: How close is the series to real life?
Some of the situations that the characters get into are combinations of both of our roommates. We’ve both had some really bad and some questionable roommates. A lot of it is inspired by true stuff. A lot of it is just kind of…embellished. Inspired by reality.
Why do you think this resonates so much?
People have to have roommates in Toronto because rent is expensive. But I also think it’s relatable because it’s about these two women. Heather is so non-confrontational; instead of just addressing a specific issue, she lets things compound, and the relationship explodes and Kesha ruins her life. I think we all do that in life. I know I certainly avoid conflict sometimes; we don’t always want to fight, we don’t want to bring things up. I think that’s relatable.
It’s a relationship that’s conditional as opposed to unconditional. Even with a boyfriend, girlfriend or friend, you don’t know sometimes. That’s when we learn to sweep things under the carpet, unfortunately.
How did the series evolve?
Katie was going through a breakup and I was going through a bad roommate situation and having to find a new place. We were going to do a series about relationships. So we met a few days later in a coffee shop to start writing. Instead of talking about relationships, we started talking about roommates. We got into this long conversation about past roommates. The people around us in the coffee shop seemed to find that funny. So we thought, dating’s been done before. Let’s make this show about roommates.
We’ve had friends where you think, “How does she afford that?” You don’t know what they’re doing. You’re working so hard and they’re lying on the couch all day, and you wonder, how are they paying their bills?
We got together in our spare time and wrote the show over seven months. We then launched an Indiegogo campaign and raised about $23,000. Then we met [Executive Producers] Adrenaline Toronto and David Carruthers. We still needed some money, so we threw a big black tie gala at Wallace Film Studios. That bumped up the budget and we surpassed our goal. We got a team together and shot it in five days and edited it and released it this month. Holy shit!
What scene was the most fun?
The one where we’re dancing in episode 2. It was like our first day shooting. We were dancing in silence with a crew around us. That was hilarious. It was just so awkward. Or the scene where the mobsters tuck us into bed. There was a lot of laughter and fun happening on set.
What’s in the future for you two?
We are signing with the same literary agent based in LA, and he’s going to help open some doors for us. We’re just going to keep continuing this series but also developing things with each other because we have a really good flow together in the writing room.
We hope to do a bunch of projects. We have so much fun and so many shared experiences – just being women and all the bullshit. We write about things we’ve actually lived through. It’s very therapeutic.
Watch the whole series here.