Margaret Cho To Release Scripted YouTube Comedy With Maker Studios

YouTube multi-channel network Maker Studios just added another name to its growing laundry list of mainstream celebrity talent with which its inked online video-related deals. Margaret Cho now joins the likes of Snoop Dogg, Robert De Niro, and more in calling Maker her YouTube liaison.

Variety announced last week Cho is set to launch her very own 13-episode, scripted series on July 3 on her very own YouTube channel. The program, dubbed In Transition, is “billed as a dark comedy about a trio of women newly released from prison,” which reads like a similar premise to Netflix’s upcoming original series Orange is the New Black, which lends this writer to believe that if we’re able to soon find one more entertainment program involving women exiting or entering correctional facilities, we’ll have a full-blown New York Times trend piece about the phenomenon.

Cho will executive produce the series with reality TV showrunner Rico Martinez

(with whom she also produced her VH1 reality show The Cho Show) and co-star Selene Luna.

The trio is bringing the program online because, as Martinez said over the phone, “We didn’t want to wait anymore.” The cultural timing also feels right. “I’ve been talking to people about doing stuff online since MySpace was popular,” Martinez continued. “Then it was too early, but now I finally feel like the internet sensibility is very close to my sensibility and in a weird way, it feels like everything else I’ve worked on – from highbrow scripted indie films to pop cultural unscripted shows – was leading up to this point in time.”

Check out a trailer to In Transition from Cho’s official YouTube channel below: