If you tuned into, heard about, or even went near the internet during the 2019 Emmy Awards on Sept. 22, you know there was one indisputable queen: the one and only Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
The “Fleabag” creator and star picked up three statues for writing, acting, and best comedy series, in a turn of events that seems plucked straight from a Hollywood fairytale. And like a good fairytale, our protagonist came from humble beginnings.
READ: Phoebe Waller-Bridge on Why—and How—Actors Can Create Their Own Work
Shortly after Waller-Bridge’s big night (and because the internet is forever), the 2013 Kickstarter campaign that the creator and her DryWrite theater company used to get funding in order to present “Fleabag” as a one-woman stage show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival went viral. That’s right: Amazon’s now-Emmy-winning best comedy series began as a one-woman stage show at a fringe festival, with the following description:
“Today I’m going to be a new person. No more slutty pizzas. No more porny wanks. Lot’s more lovely threesomes. Go. The Fleabag bites back. A rip-roaring account of some sort of a female living some sort of life in some sort of city.”
It’s a pretty safe bet that winning “some sort of most prestigious award in television” was not the ambition of the piece. Waller-Bridge and her team simply believed in their art and worked hard to get it in front of an audience—eventually, audiences were working hard to get in front of it and so, too, was the BBC, which first commissioned it as a series in the U.K., prior to the Amazon pickup thereafter.
Not too bad for a project whose initial goal was to raise £3,955 and not much else! Check out the Kickstarter page right here, which is full of so many inspirational tidbits and hidden gems, you’ll want to block off an entire afternoon to scroll. Kick back with a slutty pizza and enjoy!
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