How an overlooked storytelling niche built its own stars, its own economy and a fanbase the industry didn’t see coming
Staying with the themes of the Content London conference, if scripted felt paradoxical on Day 2, vertical dramas felt like a medium still writing its own rules. The category is young, commercially volatile and creatively uneven, yet it has already built something TV once took decades to assemble: its own talent economy.
The panels made it clear that this is not “Quibi in disguise.” The audience is real, overwhelmingly North American women aged 25–55, and they behave with astonishing consistency. Completion rates are high, conversion is measurable, and hits are defined not by prestige but by retention and repeatability. The entire marketplace runs in public: user acquisition either scales or dies, and the platforms know instantly which stories connect.
What grounded the discussion were the voices of people who actually make these shows.
Samantha Sun (Realforce) described her first Vancouver shoot, anchored by Nick Westaway and Evan Matric, two actors who are already recognisable vertical drama leads. Their presence wasn’t cosmetic. It changed the speed, the rhythm and even the way scenes could be blocked. As we know, they’ve never been cast in the same vertical because usually one of them is the lead. That is what an emerging star system looks like.
The same applies to Cayman Cardiff, whose recent RealShort project leaned on his existing following, and to Jackson Tiller, one of the clearest examples of a “bankable” vertical drama star: someone whose casting meaningfully shifts both budget decisions and marketing strategy. The next wave is forming too. Sophie Sumner (yes, the America’s Next Top Model winner) is now in the medium, alongside newer leads like Royce Blenden Post and Amber Laird, who are helping to define how performance works when the story lives almost entirely in close-up.
Even the ecosystem around the shows is maturing. Producers repeatedly cited Jen from Vertical Drama Love, whose fan-driven analysis is now treated as a practical input into scripts and character arcs. In traditional TV, audience research is something that disappears behind a deck. In vertical drama, the community speaks in real time, and creators adjust in real time. It is an unusually transparent loop between viewer and storyteller.
Behind the camera, the same shift is happening. Samantha credits Ivy for giving her the first opportunity to produce a vertical drama, proof that the medium is still early enough that individual decisions build pipelines long before institutions do. Meanwhile, writers, translators and adapters are moving in from Pixar, Bollywood, online fiction and traditional drama rooms. Some projects follow the high-volume Chinese lineage; others, like Scott Brown’s work at Second Rodeo, aim for an elevated version of the form while staying faithful to its emotional velocity.
The economics remain fluid. Budgets often fall in the $150–300K range, but can climb when experienced talent is involved. Platforms are multiplying and consolidating at the same time. Some studios are evolving into full-stack ecosystems; others are licensing globally to satisfy platforms that want six new titles a week. Everyone is building moats, but few can yet articulate the future business model without hesitation.
The real signal is simpler. This is an early medium, not an immature one. The craft is evolving fast, the audience behaviour is reliable, and the first generation of vertical drama talent (actors, showrunners, producers, fans) is already shaping the next chapter.
–Maureen