Pretty Dudes

Pretty Dudes is an independently produced digital series about a group of queer and straight friends in the greater Los Angeles area. It follows Zario, a gay twenty-something male with straight friends and roommates, including the aspiring actor Sunji, painter Kish, professional gamer Alexander, and master-of-all-trades Ellington. By series end, several of the lead characters would be revealed as queer, ranging across the spectrum including asexual and pansexual characters.

Executive produced by Jomar Miranda in the first season, the series was created by Chance Calloway to present a different type of queer web series, that would subvert expectations and avoid the stereotypes found in mainstream representations of queer life. The show stars Bryan Michael Nuñez, Xavier Avila, Kyle Rezzarday, Tiffany Commons, and Yoshi Sudarso among others.

Season 1 was originally released on YouTube before becoming available on the streaming service REVRY and eventually Stoopid Ambitious. After a successful crowdfunding campaign for Season 2, the show re-entered production in the spring of 2018.

In 2020, the show and characters were adapted into a book series.

Leading Characters
Hector "Zario" del Rosario Ellington Gomez Alexander Erzähler Sunji Spencer Kish Yancey  (Season 2) Marshall Gomez (Season 2; recurring previously) December Lín (Season 2; recurring previously) Boaz Lín (Season 2) Cassian Crosby (Season 2) Jericho "Jay" Kim (Season 1) Eagle Diolosa (Season 1)
 * portrayed by Bryan Michael Nuñez in both seasons
 * portrayed by Xavier Avila in both seasons
 * portrayed by Kyle Rezzarday in both seasons.
 * portrayed by Yoshi Sudarso in both seasons
 * portrayed by Tiffany Commons
 * portrayed by Joshuah Noah Snel in both seasons
 * portrayed by Aria Song in both seasons.
 * portrayed by Manny Shih
 * portrayed by Christian Olivo in all of his appearances.
 * portrayed by Tae Song
 * portrayed by YouTube star and singer Olivia Thai

Supporting Characters
Ty
 * portrayed by Chelsea Gray

Mandy Bell
 * portrayed by Stacy Snyder

Calligraphy "Callie" Reynolds Shane Cortez
 * portrayed by Kelsey Toussant
 * portrayed by Cesar Cipriano

Jerrica Yun (Season 1)
 * portrayed by Amanda Suk

Erwin Lee
 * portrayed by Stanley Wong

Ram Takada (Season 2) Additional appearances and cameos were made by Dion Basco, Osric Chau , Courtney Grant, Carlin James, beau sia
 * portrayed by Charlit Dae

Conception
Chance Calloway smoked weed for the first time and delivered a lengthy pitch to a few of his filmmaker friends, where he recast their real-life "roles" as a fictional house of housemates and neighbors. Months later, while reeling from the death of his brother and dealing with a horror short that was stuck in a purgatory of production, he began rewriting his concept for a drama film entitled Dirty Thirty into an episodic comedy. The original concept was bookend episodes of the full group of friends and then spending the episodes in between with Zario and a date, paralleled with the Dude who had picked the date and their own romantic entanglements.

Season One
Main article: Season 1

Casting commenced on November 8th, 2015. Callbacks were held December 8th, 2015. Season One included cameos from several performers in the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, including Dion Basco, Carlin James, and beau sia.

"Come for the eye candy, stay for the soul food." When a group of dudes in the greater Los Angeles area, self-categorized as "pretty boys,” decide that their looks have ruined their romantic lives, they set out to reverse the curse. As Zario deals with depression and the fallout from breaking up with his boyfriend, his five straight-identifying friends band together to find him the perfect love, each discovering truths about their own issues in the process.

After launching on YouTube in October of 2016, Season One was picked up by REVRY TV, streaming on the app as well as the REVRY channel on Pluto TV. In the summer of 2018 the show began streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Season One won several awards, including a Best Performance award for Xavier Avila.

In between seasons, a music video was filmed for the show's theme song "How We Break (Pretty Dudes Anthem)," sung by creator Chance Calloway alongside artists Peter Su and MattAlmodiel. Chance co-directed the video with Gerry Maravilla and the pair won Best Music Video at the Asians on Film Festival. The first season has been adapted into a novel, which was released on July 7, 2020.

Season Two
Main article: Season 2

Casting began in the spring of 2017. Returning from Season 1 are Bryan Michael Nuñez, Xavier Avila, Kyle Rezzarday, Aria Song, Marc Fajardo, and Joshuah Noah Snel. New cast members included Tiffany Commons, Manny Shih, Christian Olivo, Charlit Dae, and Peter Adrian Sudarso. Season Two brought on new crew members as well, including directors Gerry Maravilla, Heather Matarazzo, and Stanley Wong, and writers Christopher Edelen and Andrea Lee. Season Two also brought additional cameos both new and returning, thanks in part to the overwhelming attention stemming from the crowdfunding campaign and a few celebratory articles and reviews. Before Season 2's premiere, a double feature of "minisodes" was produced, entitled "Pretty Dudes: The Double Entendre," which featured the Season 2 characters in two near-continuity free stories, "Bravo Double Delta" and "Brother's Keeper."

After the bet plot of Season 1, the second season focuses on a celibacy pact brought on when one of the Dudes dies at the beginning of the season.

''They're straight, they're queer, they're pretty. After the events of the first season, the Dudes deal with death, new loves, a kidnapping, and what it means to be friends in today's world. It seems their luck has finally changed...but for the better? Their drama is your comedy.''

Short films
The series has been accompanied by several short films, at once supplemental and apocryphal to the series.
 * Ain't Afraid of No Ghost
 * Caught Gay-Handed
 * Con las Manos Joto
 * The Double EntendreFullsizeoutput_e15b.jpeg

Additional Media
The Pretty Dudes book series began to be released on July 7th, 2020.
 * Pretty Dudes: The Novel
 * Bravo Double Delta

Future of the franchise
The original blueprint for the series always included a third season.