Deon Stubbs Brought Almost Famous to Amazon Prime Video on His Own Terms

Some people find their calling. Deon Stubbs says it found him. Growing up, he was the one everybody wanted to record: the family entertainer. "You know how you always got that one family member that's talented, that hosts the game nights, that hosts Thanksgiving, that's funny? That was me." Before YouTube had long-form anything, he was doing it on Vine in six seconds, learning early that holding an audience was about time instinct.

That instinct eventually found a real stage. His first on-screen opportunity came with "Surviving Compton" on Lifetime, and something clicked beyond the performance itself. He started to see what storytelling could actually do for the people watching, especially in his hometown, and for the younger generation looking for someone to believe in. "At the foundation, I felt like it was my purpose to tell stories in a significant way, through a character and personality that were already mine." From there, the question was never whether he'd keep going. It was what he'd build.

What he built is “Almost Famous,” a comedy series now streaming on Amazon Prime Video following a former rising star forced to move back home and wait on his next shot. Torn between loyalty to his community and the pull of something bigger, the crew hypes each other up, self-sabotages and laughs through the chaos of being right on the edge.