Fruity: The New Queer Webseries Created as an Experiment

In an industry where getting a project made can mean endless pitching, waiting and hoping for a green light, Shannon Haly decided to take a different approach: make the show independently, put it online and see if an audience would find it.

“We are so lucky to have social media nowadays. We don’t need a green light from anyone to get our work out there and in front of an audience.”

Haly and her friends wanted to create the kind of show they were craving themselves — something fun and unapologetically queer and set in the city and world they actually knew. Rather than waiting for someone else to make it, they decided to make it themselves.

Fruity is about relationships, friendships, bad decisions and trying to navigate life when you’re probably not making the best choices.

The series isn’t interested in presenting a perfect version of queer life. Instead, it finds humour in the messiness of it. These are people figuring things out as they go, making questionable choices, falling in and out of relationships and friendships, and generally trying to survive life in a big city.

One of the things that has made the project particularly special for Haly has been the people who have come together to make it. The cast includes Irish actor and comedian Madison Cawley and actor and poet Carys Clempner, alongside a brilliant group of performers who completely understand the tone and world of the show. There is something exciting about watching actors take these characters and make them their own, bringing ideas and personalities to roles that started on the page.

Behind the camera, Fruity has been just as much of a collaboration. Haly co-directed the series with her sister Megan Haly, while their sister Robyn joined the production on costume. DOP Scarlett Gardner helped create the visual world of Fruity, while producer Lia Gomez-Lang was instrumental in keeping everything moving behind the scenes.

The result is a project that feels genuinely collaborative, built by a group of people who believe in the same slightly chaotic vision.

That DIY approach is also central to the experiment behind Fruity.

Social media has changed what is possible for emerging filmmakers. Creators can now make work independently and put it directly in front of an audience without necessarily needing the backing of a traditional broadcaster or streaming platform. Instead of spending years trying to convince someone that an audience might exist for an idea, filmmakers can make the work and let viewers decide for themselves.

That’s what makes independent filmmaking so exciting right now. You can have an idea, gather your friends and collaborators, make something you genuinely care about and put it directly in front of an audience. You don’t have to wait for someone in a meeting to decide whether queer people are “marketable”, or whether there’s an audience for your story.

Sometimes you can just make the thing. And if you’re lucky, you might find that the audience you were hoping for was already out there, waiting for it.

For Haly, that possibility was too exciting not to try.

The first test came when a teaser for the pilot was released online. It quickly gained traction, reaching more than seven million people across platforms.

“It was a nice way to litmus test the show and see if there would be interest,” says Haly.

At its heart, the project is about creating a world that feels familiar to the people who inspired it. And perhaps that’s why the show feels so at home online.

There is no traditional streamer deciding whether the idea is worth making. No broadcaster has to approve the premise before an audience can see it. Fruity can simply exist, find its people and grow from there.

The experiment is still underway.

But for Haly and the team behind the series, the fact that Fruity exists at all is already a small victory. 

Now they’re seeing who finds it.

Fruity can be watched directly on Instagram and YouTube @fruitywebseries