FIRST began as a hit digital series on Issa Rae’s YouTube Channel and since has garnered over 7 million views, a loyal fan base, TV development deal with BET, featured in publications such as Good Morning America, Essence, Landscape, Hello Beautiful and now the feature film of the same name made the finalist round of the 2022 Screencraft film fund & premiered to a SOLD OUT audience at the Academy qualifying Pan African Film Festival.

FIRST answered the deep call for Black people to see themselves represented on the small screen. The web series hit a chord with young Black audiences because it was one of the first web series to represent Black people in a positive way and has been in high demand from fans to be made into a movie.

After years of trying to get FIRST made, husband & wife team, Brandon and Jahmela Yarbrough decided to take matters into their own hands and produced, financed and co-directed the film through their production company Yarbrough Studios. Jahmela and Brandon have over 15 years of production experience ranging from independent projects to working with major companies like Sony, E One, BET, Lionsgate, Project Greenlight, & Kevin Hart’s Laugh out Loud Network in addition to having films as official selections for Cannes, Durban and Pan African FIlm Festival.

FIRST revolves around Charles (Will Catlett, A Thousand And One, Love Is, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey), an aspiring documentarian who has let go of his dream of being a filmmaker, but manages to chronicle his first love. When Charles reconnects with his childhood friend Robin (Jahmela B. Yarbrough, CSI Miami, Whitney, Love Bites), sparks fly and they both find themselves entering territory that they both longed for but always feared. Charles documents the journey as these childhood friends fall in love one "first" at a time.