Hello Sunshine’s Unscripted Team Is Very Committed To Women’s Sports

In a recent interview, Sara Rea, who heads Hello Sunshine’s unscripted department, discussed how passionate the company is about telling the stories of some of the world’s top female athletes.

To start, the Reese Witherspoon-founded production company partnered with the female-led media giant TOGETHXR for the four-part documentary series Surf Girls Hawai’i. The two female-led powerhouse companies united to create the series, reminiscent of the iconic movie Blue Crush, which premiered to rave reviews on July 18 exclusively on Prime Video.

Known for its Midas touch regarding female-centric storytelling, Hello Sunshine recently received 11 Emmy nominations for two scripted series: nine for Daisy Jones & The Six and two for Tiny Beautiful Things.

Hello Sunshine, which Candle Media owns, has ramped up its unscripted department. Alongside CEO Sarah Harden, Rea has spearheaded several hits, including the music competition series My Kind of Country on Apple TV+ (the first of its kind for the streaming platform), the Wynonna Judd documentary Wynonna: Between Hell and Hallelujah (Paramount+), Prime Video’s Making the Cut with Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn, the wildly popular series Get Organized (Netflix) and the unscripted romantic comedy feature, Meet Me In Paris, which is streaming on Roku.

Per Rea, her team is very motivated to dive into the highly-competitive world of female sports to tell the behind-the-scenes stories of these fascinating women. The unscripted team recently announced its partnership with Formula 1 for a documentary series on the recently-launched, all-female F1 Academy to tell the stories of 15 female drivers across the five F1 Academy teams.

The women, ranging from 16 to 25 years old, open up about their lives on and off the racetrack as they compete at seven global locations, concluding the inaugural season at Formula 1’s U.S. Grand Prix event in Austin, TX, in October of 2023.

The 2024 F1 Academy racing schedule will align with the Formula 1 calendar, creating an opportunity for these female drivers to participate in the largest-scale racing events in the world throughout the 2024 F1 racing calendar. Witherspoon and Rea will executive produce alongside Isabelle Stewart on behalf of F1 Academy.

“We are really focused on women’s sports and telling the compelling stories of these dynamic athletes. Both series involve high stakes, adrenaline, and heart,” said Rea, adding their excitement with the positive response to their entry into the genre.

“Surf Girls Hawai’i has exceeded our expectations. During the first week, it was consistently on the U.S. Top 10 list on Amazon Prime, even reaching No. 4. We are blown away by the love the show has received from viewers,” Rea added.

TOGETHXR, which is part of the recently-launched production company A Touch More, founded by Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe, has become one of the fastest-growing women’s sports brands, amassing over one billion video views for their slate of original series. It was founded three years ago by sports media entrepreneur Jessica Robertson, alongside four of the world’s top professional athletes, Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim, Simone Manuel, and Bird.

Surf Girls Hawai’i follows the next generation of native Hawaiian female surfers: Moana Jones Wong, Ewe Wong, Maluhia Kinimaka, Pua DeSoto, and Brianna Cope as they compete to earn a coveted spot on the professional surfing World Tour.

The cameras follow them as they train, navigate family responsibilities, and school. We see the realities of the pressures of competition as they surf waves alongside the highest-ranking pros in the world to get to the top of the podium. The viewer gets a real-life glimpse into the hard work and dedication it takes to reach the top in a world where one missed wave or injury can crush the dream.

TOGETHXR brought the concept for Surf Girls Hawai’i, based on their YouTube series, to Hello Sunshine, where it became the company’s first female sports series. Witherspoon and Rea executive produce for Hello Sunshine alongside Reni Calister, Jessica Robertson, and Brett Bouttier of TOGETHXR.

“Surf Girls Hawai’i is where culture, sport, and the collective power of women meet, and that gets us fired up. With four Olympian founders, we seek to shatter the narrow depictions of women in sports through storytelling where representation and diversity are the norm. When we produced our original digital series Kaikana, which inspired Surf Girls, we were struck by these young women’s athleticism and deep love for their Indigenous Hawaiian culture. These women are not only the best at what they do, but their why makes them undeniable,” explains Calister, TOGETHXR’s executive vice president of content.

What makes Surf Girls Hawai’i such a standout is that despite the intense competition and high stakes, there is a real sisterhood here. The love between them is evident as each consistently supports the other, even when one’s win comes simultaneous to another’s loss.