TV show "Dear White People" is based on the movie that came out in 2014. The film was written and directed by Justin Simien and is a satirical comedy-drama about Black students navigating racial tensions at a fictional, predominantly white Ivy League college.
The movie premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, where it competed in the U.S. Dramatic category. It later received a theatrical release in the United States on October 17, 2014. Tessa Thompson played Samantha White, a student whose provocative campus radio show gives the film its title, alongside Tyler James Williams, Kyle Gallner, Teyonah Parris, and Brandon P. Bell.
The film's success led Netflix to develop a television adaptation. The series premiered in 2017 and expanded the film's world through multiple seasons, following different students and exploring race, identity, politics, sexuality, class, and campus culture in greater depth.
The show was therefore adapted from a 2014 feature film, rather than from a novel or an earlier television program. Simien remained involved with the series, helping preserve the movie's sharply comic but serious approach to institutional racism and the social pressures experienced by its characters.