When XO, KITTY met KIA GREER...
XO KITTY star Regan Aliyah is voicing the audiobook for THE EDUCATION OF KIA GREER.
XO, KITTY’s Juliana was always going to be important to me. Back in late 2021 and early 2022, when we were in season one of the writer’s room, it was already clear that Juliana was only going to make a few appearances in the first season. She’d be in flashbacks here and there, and then she’d come swooooping back in at finale time just as things between Kitty and Yuri had grown more complicated, with more Juliana promised for season two. My episode in season one was number three, “KISS,” which featured our first real glimpse at the love story that had Yuri so torn up. It was such a joy to write these girls in love, even if they were destined to be (temporarily) ripped apart, their relationship made more complicated by what would take place in the interim. I loved, so much, that XO, KITTY was groundbreaking for its majority-Asian cast, and that we got to tell a queer love story or eight within that. I also loved especially hard that Juliana was Black.
I mean, I will not lie to you, I have an agenda in writer’s rooms, and it is to further evolve the queer and Black and women-and-girl-centered stories we see onscreen. I will fight for those characters — for their existence, for their right to be complicated and sometimes anti-heroic, and for their right to joy. This all meant that I was over the MOON (no Min Ho family pun intended) when I saw that Regan Aliyah, who Jenny Han and Sascha Rothchild had cast as Juliana, light up the screen in every scene she was in. Regan’s talent and star power made me all the more excited for what was to come. I had no idea, at the time, that our paths were going to continue to cross outside of the realm of K.I.S.S.
I must make it clear that as an Executive Story Editor and then Producer in the writer’s room for XO, KITTY there was absolutely no decision that was fully mine to make. My fellow (amazing) writers and I pitched a million and a half stories a week, about Juliana but also everyone else, and then it was the showrunner’s choice what we went with at the end of the day. Let me tell you: I was going to bat for Juliana every single day. Like I said: I am not shy about my agenda. We had a superstar on our hands, and I was constantly whipping out my phone to show my coworkers videos of Regan dancing, rapping, and generally being cool as hell. If any of the XO cast is reading this: I promise she wasn’t the only one I was obsessed with! Every one of you is absurdly talented. But this post is about Regan.
Why?
Because my fandom paid off, and Regan Aliyah voiced the audiobook for THE EDUCATION OF KIA GREER.
I am still pinching myself that we made this happen, and that Regan said yes. When I heard her audition is scratched the writerly part of my brain that whispered yes, this is our Kia. She brought Kiara “Kia” Greer to life for the very first time — alongside all the other characters Regan had to channel for the audiobook. It’s a full-circle moment, considering I got the idea for TEOKG during the season one writer’s room, surrounded as I was daily by the YA brilliance of Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian.
My time writing for XO, KITTY has come and gone, but I will take so much with me from the experience. I’m glad I got to drag Regan (who also remains at K.I.S.S., don’t worry) along with me as THE EDUCATION OF KIA GREER gets ready to meet the world. So thank you, Regan, for saying yes and being the world’s first Kia. Thank you, Jenny and Sasha, for casting her and hiring me on XO. Thank you, Lauren Klein, for producing the audiobook, and Olivia Mackenzie-Smith, for directing it.
Audiobooks are the number one way that I read. And yes, I count it as reading; I think if you don’t you are simply a snob. Audiobooks are how I fit books into my day-to-day ADHD-rattled life. They are important to me, and I couldn’t be happier that the audiobook for THE EDUCATION OF KIA GREER is a great one.
As a little treat, because I love you and I love this audiobook, here is a snippet from the part where Kia meets Cass…
And yes, this is where I must remind you that pre-orders are important. You can get a signed copy of THE EDUCATION OF KIA GREER from Reparations Club. You can also pre-order the audiobook, if that’s your thing.