CityViews: 'Tough Love' Cast & Creators On Navigating Life & Love In NYC

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – The creators and cast of the Emmy-nominated web series "Tough Love" know what it's like to navigate love, dating and relationships in New York City.

The series follows six millennials as they try to do just that.

"Tough Love" premiered in 2015 and received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for "Outstanding Digital Daytime Drama Series" earlier this year, in only its second season.

Creators Roni and Caleb Davis told 1010 WINS' Sharon Barnes-Waters the series is based on their relationship and those of their friends. The couple dated since college and married last month.

"We went through the struggles, the ups and downs, the game playing," Roni said.

"It's always good to have moments to reflect, and actually put it in your art, and then broadcast it out to everybody," Caleb added. "And they relate to the same things that we once related to and currently relate to."

They saw a need for the series, because they felt TV shows and movies weren't accurately depicting what's going on in the African American community among millennials.

"I was very inspired to create 'Tough Love,' because I grew up on romance movies – black romance movies – and over time I noticed that it was lacking, there were not a lot of great black films put out about love. It had started to be a focus on like the reality show love," Roni said.

So why the web?

"It's disruptive. You really get the opportunity to create it, upload it, share it and communicate with the people," Caleb said. "We want that instant feedback, to interact with our fans."

Cast members Verina Banks, Bradley Clarke, Ebony Obsidian, Natalie Jacobs and Jordan Barton compared their characters to their own lives, saying we all have a lot to learn from them.

You can hear more about "Tough Love" during the Hip Hop Film Festival later this week. Roni and Caleb will be part of The Creators Panel during the Urban Web Summit on Friday, August 4th at 7 p.m.

For more information and the full lineup of events, visit HipHopFilmFestival.org and ToughLoveSeries.com.