Fox has teamed up with a top creator to help it crack the micro drama business.
The entertainment company is partnering with Dhar Mann Studios in a multiyear deal to create scripted video series. The initial slate involves 40 series and will debut on micro drama platform My Drama. After that, Fox’s distribution arm will be able to sell it to other platforms.
The deal represents a convergence of a couple of big trends in Hollywood. Traditional film and TV companies like Netflix and NBCUniversal have been stepping up work with independent creators to win back viewers from YouTube. They’re also exploring micro dramas, a mobile-focused format born in Asia that has picked up steam in the US.
Fox was an early mover: it acquired an equity stake in Holywater, the Ukrainian parent of My Drama, in October 2025 and is actively producing 200 original micro dramas, also called verticals, for the platform.
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In Dhar Mann, Fox found a partner who is versed in the kind of mobile video that’s adjacent to micro dramas. Mann’s studio, which he founded in 2018, has some 163 million followers across multiple channels and is one of the biggest makers of scripted content. That makes Mann a rarity in the world of creators, who are mostly focused on unscripted content. Mann’s studio makes several hours of content each week focused on uplifting morality tales, with titles like “Science nerd proves whole school wrong” and “Girl picks money over love in life.”
Such videos are not far from micro dramas, which are soapy, fast-paced series that largely fall into the romance genre and often feature outlandish plots involving characters like billionaires behaving badly and werewolf lovers.
The Dhar Mann deal appears to be the first multi-title micro drama partnership between a major studio and a creator.
Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade cited Dhar Mann’s “inspiring, undeniable storytelling excellence and passionate audience” in the decision to work with the studio.
‘We have a huge marketing platform, we have the audience’
Dhar Mann Studios CEO Sean Atkins said the company fielded interest from other potential partners for its videos.
“Everybody and their mother came through the studio,” he said. “We have a huge marketing platform, we have the audience.”
He said Dhar Mann Studios would retain ownership and final creative say over the content it makes for Fox.
“We already make it at a scale and efficiency that no one else can match,” Atkins said. “If you really look at our main channel, there is no genre we don’t do.”
Dhar Mann execs wouldn’t divulge details of the first slate, but promised it would represent romance, thrillers, and more. Erin McFarlane, head of vertical content at Dhar Mann Studios, said a recent survey of its Facebook audience showed vertical fans liked those genres but wanted more variety within them.
“We do want to have strong leads,” she said. “We do want to have these really satisfying arcs that can allow folks to feel like that’s time well spent, that is something that they feel invigorated and they feel positive at the end of it.”
Micro dramas’ business model has faced some skepticism because of the high cost of marketing them and the sheer proliferation of apps competing for people’s time and wallets. Atkins said he was confident in Dhar Mann Studios’ ability to succeed in the format because of its scaled approach.
“Media works on a portfolio,” he said. “If you’re Warner Bros. Studio, you don’t bet your lot by making one movie. You bet your lot by making 30.”
