In 2018, Mandy and Brandon moved back to New York City, Brooklyn to be exact, in anticipation of the first born child. Both have been actors, writers, and directors for the past 20+ years. During the day they masquerade as teachers, and both teach in Brooklyn, Mandy in a charter school in Williamsburg and Brandon in a public school in Canarsie.

Very quickly, they became aware of the segregation that still exists in NYC schools and the continued gentrification of “Black Brooklyn”. Brandon’s tenure at an underfunded, resourced-strained theatre arts high school in Canarsie exposed the failure in former Mayor Bloomberg’s attempt to create “content-focused” schools.

Seeing the failures of the current NYC public school system, the relentless gentrification of “Black Brooklyn”, and through countless interviews and conversations with people of color throughout Brooklyn, they came up with the show concept and wrote the pilot script for BrooklynStart, “a show about a conversation that no one wants to have.”

Currently, they live in Bushwick with their two children, Aurora and Finn.