October 24 (2012-10-24) – December 1, 2012 (2012-12-01)
DTLA (acronym for Downtown Los Angeles) is a gay-themed television series which premiered October 24, 2012. The series was created, and is co-produced and directed by Larry Kennar.[1] It follows a group of friends in Downtown Los Angeles[2] under the slogan: One City, Seven Lives / Old Friends, New Stories. The seven main characters are Lenny, Bryan, Sara Jane, Matthew, Marky, Kai and Stefan.
Darryl Stephens as Leonard "Lenny", a civil litigation attorney and Bryan's boyfriend of six years[3]
Matthew Stephen Herrick as Bryan, a stoner and Lenny's boyfriend who has been unemployed for over a year[4]
Marshelle Fair as SJ, a Professor of fashion merchandizing, textiles, and accessories, she is a college friend of Lenny, Kai and Kevin, and estranged wife of Norm[5]
Hiro Tanaka as Kai Nakamoto, a high school math teacher[6]
Scott Pretty as Marky, a military man and boyfriend of Matthew[7]
Patrick McDonald as Matthew Bouvier, Bryan's friend who recently moved to LA to be an actor[8]
Ernest Pierce as Stefan, a lawyer and friend of Lenny[9]
JC Jones as Trey, Stefan's young boyfriend, he works in a doughnut shop part-time and has a stage act at night as a drag queen[10]
Jeremy Jackson as Kevin, a former model, college friend of Lenny, Kai, and SJ, who recently moved back to LA for a new start
Michael Basilli as Rafi, a manager of a Downtown Los Angeles club, who after meeting Kai soon becomes a romantic interest of Kai
B. Scott as Bosco, owner of a restaurant they frequently gather at[11]
DTLA was originally made as a movie.[1] The U.S.'s two main LGBT cable channels were not enthusiastic about the project; here! passed on the project and Logo was initially non-committal.[17] Brad Danks, COO of OUTtv said, "He called us because he had heard from people in the U.S. that we were doing good things in Canada with the service."[17] After screening a rough cut of the movie for executives of OUTtv they commissioned a series instead.[1] It was originally expected that the series would premiere on OUTtv in the late spring of 2012.[18] On January 25, 2012 Kennar created an account on Kickstarter.com for the series, to secure the remaining required financing via crowd funding.[19] In 6 days 50 people had pledged a total of $4762.[1] On February 21, 2012 it was announced that they had surpassed their target of $25000.[20] In April 2012 it was announced that the premiere of DTLA would be delayed until after the launch of OUTtv's HD channel which would be coming in a few months.[21] In September 2012 it was announced that DTLA had been acquired by Logo.[22]DTLA is the first series funded in part via Kickstarter to receive domestic and international distribution.[17] Distribution outside of Canada and the U.S. is being handled by OUTtv.[21]