Keyatta Crews had no Hollywood connections and launched her first TV series with no budget to speak of.
Today, Season 1 of her drama “Bordersville” has surpassed 60 million views on Tubi, making her the first Black woman in Houston to create an original streaming series on the platform. She did that in Houston, without a network deal, and with her husband and children by her side.
That story of grit, ownership, and building something from nothing is exactly the kind Crews has always been drawn to tell.
“Acting is my first love,” Crews said during a recent interview with the Defender Network. “That’s what I wanted to do since I was a kid. I was infatuated with television, infatuated with movies. But looking around, I had no clue how I would get there. I didn’t know anybody who looked like me, anybody that had anything to do with movies.”
Crews grew up in Houston and pursued her passion through formal training, earning a major in business and a minor in theater. By 2015, she was hitting auditions across the city and had briefly secured representation through a talent agent. But opportunities in Houston’s developing film scene were scarce, and the ones that did exist rarely paid.
In 2018 or 2019, she made a move that many aspiring Houston filmmakers before her had considered: She drove to Atlanta, convinced that Tyler Perry would discover her. She was not prepared for what she found.
“I was going to move. I was going to work for Tyler Perry. Baby, I was destined,” she said, laughing at the memory. “Got to Atlanta. Couldn’t find [anywhere] to live, couldn’t find [anything]. I called my husband when I said I was boohooing and crying.”
Her husband gave her some advice that would redirect the entire course of her career. He told her to come home and become her own Tyler Perry.
“I was like, what? How am I going to do that?” she recalled.
From Atlanta to Houston
She did it anyway. Back in Houston, Crews sat down and wrote the first episodes of what would become “Bordersville,” a raw, community-grounded drama inspired by real experiences, teenage pregnancy, domestic hardship, family dysfunction, and the secrets that fester inside households that look normal from the outside. When she shared the pages with family and friends, the reaction floored her.
“They were like, ‘You wrote this? Like, this is good,” Crews said. “But I’m like, what am I going to do with it? I don’t have any money. I don’t know the first thing about a production.”
She figured it out. Crews reached out to trusted contacts, borrowed resources, and, in the process, discovered an ability she had not fully claimed before, and then directed. She realized that if she had the vision for these characters, she was also best equipped to translate them.
“I didn’t realize that I was really good at training people with acting. I was really good at molding people,” she said. “Going in headfirst, honestly, like teaching myself. And that’s when I wrote my book.”
That book, “Tubi or Not Tubi: Filmmaking on a Dime in 10 Days,” captures the philosophy she developed out of necessity. It starts with what you have, protect what you build, and get it done.
She launched “Bordersville” on YouTube in short episodes released every Saturday. Initially slow to gain traction, the storytelling eventually resonated, leading to interest from Tubi, the ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox Entertainment.
Crews combined her short installments into five full-length episodes for Season 1. It took years, but the series eventually blew up. She now has three seasons streaming and a fourth she funded entirely on her own, investing $50,000 out of pocket.
The road was not without its challenges. After Season 1 found its footing, Crews secured a $35,000 production deal for Season 2, completing it in 10 days with six episodes. When a dispute with the investor threatened to bury the season permanently, she made a move that has since become the cornerstone of her business philosophy.
“He sent me an email saying, ‘ Give me $30,000 in 10 days,’” she said. “I reached out to my distributors. Two days later, I told him, `Meet me at Navy Federal.’ I gave him a $30,000 cashier’s check. Sign this contract, and give me everything you have of my footage. We’re done.”
Importance of ownership
That experience hardened her into one of the fiercest advocates for intellectual property protection. She is emphatic on three points above all others.
“Contracts. Get it in writing. That’s the only thing I need to say,” she said. “Number two: start. Put something out there. Don’t care about what nobody gotta say. And number three: ownership. Nobody can take ‘Bordersville’ from me. That’s mine. I created it, it’s copyrighted, it’s registered, I own it.”
She has taken that principle into her family structure as well. For Season 3, Crews brought her children on as credited writers, which means they now receive royalties from the work.
“That’s the best investment I could have ever made for myself and my family,” she said.
Those children are not passive participants. Paris Crews, Keyatta’s daughter and the actress who plays Yanni in the series, handles casting calls, social media promotion, and script notes. In an interview alongside her brother, Cruz described the particular pressure of being the creator’s child on set.
“You have to separate that, because it’s work,” Paris said. “She expects us to come on set knowing our script, knowing what we have to do, because we have to set an example for the other people. We also have to coach and teach them. It’s not easy.”
Paris describes herself as a model, brand ambassador, and Jill of all trades. She has ambitions beyond acting. She wants to launch a podcast, write books, and pursue real estate; the entrepreneurial instinct is clearly inherited.
Kamin Brantford, Keyatta’s son, who performs under the screen name DeKavien Bradford and plays Tyler on the series, describes his role simply: Whatever is needed.
“If she needs me to PA today, of course. She needs music; I make music. I need to hold the boom? I hate it, but I’m going to do it,” he said. Brantford, who calls music his first love and has assembled a management team of his own, contributes writing for his character and regularly pitches ideas for future seasons.
“I no longer want to work for Tyler Perry,” she said. “I want to work alongside Tyler Perry. I want to be the Shonda Rhimes, the Issa Raes, the Lena Waithes.”
Keyatta Crews
Both children used the same word independently when asked what they wanted readers to understand about their mother: grinder.
“A lot of people think that because it’s Tubi, it’s easy,” Paris said. “It’s not easy to be independent. This lady grinds. Even before Season 1 was out, we were busting our butt. We’re nowhere near where we want to be. So we’re still grinding.”
Legacy building
Keyatta remains clear-eyed about the city’s film ecosystem. She sees potential in the community that has yet to be fully realized, particularly among Black filmmakers who treat one another as competitors rather than collaborators.
“Look what I did in 10 days. Just imagine what we could do if we pull our resources together. The film community needs to get it together,” she said. “Because we would be so much further ahead if we stopped playing and worked together.”
As for what is next, Keyatta is thinking bigger. She has a major script she has been developing, but has chosen to adapt it into a book first, hoping the novel’s traction will attract the mainstream deal needed to bring it to the screen. She has another film, “Greedy Ego,” awaiting release. And she has made peace with the vision that once felt impossibly out of reach.
“I no longer want to work for Tyler Perry,” she said. “I want to work alongside Tyler Perry. I want to be the Shonda Rhimes, the Issa Raes, the Lena Waithes.”
