EXCLUSIVE: When typing “toxic moms” into Google search, the top suggested query is “toxic moms Ashley Tisdale.” The High School Musical alumna is capitalizing on that viral association with Toxic Moms, a comedy series which, in a competitive situation, has landed at Netflix for development.
Tisdale, who is expected to star, has teamed on the project with Sabrina Jalees (Mating Season, Search Party) and Ali Wong (Always Be My Maybe, Beef).
Written by Jalees, Toxic Moms is a dark half-hour comedy following a sleep-deprived new mom who’s drawn into a clique of cool, wealthy mothers. But when the group reveals its darker side, the series asks: in the isolation of motherhood, how far would you go to taste community?
Tisdale, Jalees and Wong executive produce; I hear Wong may direct if the comedy goes to series.
Based on an original idea, Toxic Moms is informed by Tisdale’s experience as a mom of two young children.
She reflected on aspects of that in her now-viral essay Breaking Up with My Toxic Mom Group, published by The Cut in January, which launched a frenzied Internet sleuth campaign to ID the celebrities in the mom group she was referring to.
Toxic Moms is looking to join a string of current Netflix comedy series centered on a female lead, including Running Point, Nobody Wants This, The Survival of the Thickest and North of North.
Tisdale, who broke out on Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and the High School Musical franchise, went on to star on the CW’s Hellcats and comedy series Merry Happy Whatever for Netflix and Carol’s Second Act for CBS. She also executive produced and recurred on the Freeform (then-ABC Family) comedy series Young & Hungry and is a main voice cast member of Disney Channel’s Phineas and Ferb. Tisdale, who also has multi-camera comedy You’re Only Young Twice in development at CBS, is repped by Gersh and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.
Jalees is with WME, OPE Partners and attorneys Patti Felker and JR McGinnis. Wong is repped by UTA and Hansen Jacobson Teller.
