Hollywood Veterans Enter the Vertical Drama Race as aTwist Launches With 10 Original Series

Three of television’s most experienced executives have moved into phone-first storytelling. aTwist, a microseries studio and platform founded by Jana Winograde, Susan Rovner and Lloyd Braun, went live on Thursday, September 3, with 10 original series and a curated library of licensed titles, Reuters reported.

Winograde is a former president of Showtime. Rovner previously served as chairman of NBCUniversal content and president of Warner Bros. Television, and Braun is a former chairman of ABC Entertainment Group and WME. Winograde serves as chief executive and Rovner as chief creative officer, according to Variety.

Who Is Behind aTwist?

The company was first announced in August 2025 under the name MicroCo. It is backed by Braun’s Banyan Ventures, with Cineverse holding a minority stake, according to C21Media. The service is available through its website and major app stores in eight countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and India.

Reuters describes microseries as serialized stories filmed vertically for mobile viewing, typically running 40 to 60 episodes of one to three minutes each.

What Is in the Launch Slate

The opening line-up covers scripted, unscripted and animated series. Hollywood Starlet comes from Bradley Bell, executive producer and head writer of The Bold and the Beautiful, and stars Bella Grace Mraz and Eric Guilmette. The Hollywood Reporter describes it as the story of a cleaner and aspiring actor whose break arrives when a well-known actor takes a romantic interest in her.

Jonathan Stern, founder of Abominable Pictures and an executive producer of Childrens Hospital, contributes My Billionaire Kidney, a spoof of the genre’s own conventions. Other scripted titles include Buried Alive, Back For Revenge, with Nicole Mattox and Nick Ritacco; I Swiped Right on a Serial Killer, starring Mariah Moss; the horror series Something Is Alive In My Attic; My Book Boyfriend Came to Life; Pretty Hurts And So Do I; and Strangers, A Plane And A Deadly Game.

The unscripted entry, Cash Out, features Violet Benson, Kristen Ochoa, Jaden Ashley and Christa Texeira. The animated I Fell in Love with a Dragon Prince has voice performances from Jayme Mantos, Ted Evans, Cornelius Mohr and Kristen DiMercurio, C21Media reported.

aTwist has also signed a creative partnership with Kevin Hart’s company Hartbeat, a deal with BET to develop and distribute microdramas across linear and digital platforms, and an agreement with National CineMedia to advertise its series in movie theaters, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Winograde told Variety that interest has come from across the business, from Broadway to recording artists to filmmakers, adding that “everybody is microseries curious.” Rovner told the outlet that competition will be heavy and that content will decide which companies survive.

How Viewers Pay for Vertical Series

aTwist releases new series on Thursdays. Select episodes are free with advertising, and full seasons can be unlocked with coins or through a subscription, the company said.

That mix is already standard among the established apps. Media Partners Asia estimates that ReelShort holds about 29 percent of microdrama revenue outside China, followed by DramaBox at 21 percent, DramaWave at 13 percent, NetShort at 10 percent and GoodShort at 6 percent, with roughly 300 smaller apps sharing the rest.

DramaBox, operated by Singapore-based StoryMatrix and selected for the Disney Accelerator in 2025, lists memberships among its in-app purchases on Apple’s App Store, and dramabox membership plans now sit beside coin packs as the two main ways its viewers pay.

MPA chief executive Vivek Couto said in the firm’s August report that platform fees are falling as operators move billing to their own web stores, and that advertising is entering the revenue mix.

A Crowded Month for Microdrama Launches

aTwist did not arrive alone. Deadline reported this month that LoveHit, an L.A.-based studio and app, is launching with a slate drawn entirely from public domain classics, including Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and The Great Gatsby.

Upscale Media Films, led by founder and chief executive Malik Davis and already producing vertical shows with Hartbeat, formally launched as a full-service microdrama production company. In July, BuzzFeed Studios and MuVpix agreed to produce more than 100 titles over two years.

Market forecasts have grown alongside the launches. Omdia expects the format to generate $1.5 billion in U.S. revenue this year, according to Reuters. MPA sizes the market outside China at $3.6 billion in 2026 and projects $9.5 billion by 2031.

What Comes Next

aTwist’s schedule calls for new microseries every Thursday. Range Media Partners and Google’s 100 Zeros have a microdrama slate scheduled to debut in fall 2026, with shows in development from The Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss, American Idol creator Simon Fuller, and director McG, Variety reported in June.