Let’s just go ahead and say what needed to be said a long time ago. plus size women in leading TV roles has been a conversation the industry keeps avoiding, but Brely Evans in Love Don’t Pay the Bills is not letting them dodge it anymore. Not the best friend. Not the comic relief.
The actual leading lady who gets the man, holds down the bag and takes up every inch of the screen she deserves. And it is streaming right now on Tubi. Go ahead and clear your schedule this weekend.
Silk White Productions dropped this five-episode limited series on Valentine’s Day and it has been living in our heads rent-free ever since. The plot twists are delightful, the cast showed up fully loaded with talent and TV has a new gold standard because of it. If you have not watched yet, we will wait.
First, Let’s Talk About Why This Is a Big Deal
Did you know that the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media has consistently found that body-diverse representation on screen is significantly lower than it should be, especially for women? And here is the part that really should not be surprising but somehow still is: 67 percent of American women wear plus sizes, yet plus size women in leading TV roles remains the exception rather than the rule.
The UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report shared that in 2024, there were actually fewer leading roles for women across the board, even as those same women were driving the top viewership numbers. The audience is there. The demand is absolutely there. The industry just keeps fumbling the bag.
That is exactly why every conversation about plus size women in leading TV roles matters, and why shows like Love Don’t Pay the Bills are so necessary. When a plus size woman steps into a leading role and owns it the way Brely Evans does here, it is not just entertainment. It is evidence. It is proof that we have always been ready for the spotlight, whether Hollywood was ready to hand it over or not.
Meet the Show You Need to Be Watching
Written and directed by Harlem-born bestselling author and filmmaker Silk White, Love Don’t Pay the Bills is equal parts seductive, dangerous and emotionally charged. The story centers on Trina (Arielle Johnson), a woman expertly juggling a double life built on control, secrecy and survival.
When a calculated decision pulls her into the orbit of Romelo (Blue Kimble) and his wife Missy (Brely Evans), everything she has worked to protect starts to unravel. Add in a messy mother-daughter dynamic with Chelle (Torrei Hart) and you have five episodes that will have you fully invested and probably yelling or gasping at your screen.
Credit to Love Don’t Pay the Bills
Silk White put it this way: “This story is about what people do for love, what they hide for survival, and what it costs when the truth finally shows up. It’s raw, it’s real, and it’s going to leave people talking.” He was not wrong. Not even a little bit.
Brely Evans Is Not Here to Play the Best Friend
Now here is the part that had The Curvy Fashionista sitting up straight. When we talk about plus size women in leading TV roles, Brely Evans as Missy is one of the most compelling examples we have seen in a long time. From the very first episode, Missy makes it clear she is not to be tested.
She goes to great lengths to protect her reputation and get the job done, and she makes that known quickly when she delivers some very pointed words to her husband who has been notably absent. There are three things Missy does not play about: her business, her reputation and looking good. That is the whole character summary right there.
At the press junket, The Curvy Fashionista had one question for Brely and we were not going to waste it. We asked what it means to step into the conversation around plus size women in leading TV roles, especially in a story built around love, betrayal and survival, in an industry that has spent years telling women who look like us that we do not fit the mold.
“We are known to not get the leading lady roles, and it happens to be upon how we look,” she said. “But this is why I love getting these type of opportunities so people can see, oh, this is real life. Because for real, your mama, somebody’s auntie or whatever, is looking more like me.”
Yes. Say it again for the people in the back.
Brely also opened up during the junket about how she built the character from the inside out. She pulled from the boss women in her own life, her aunts and her grandmother, and she looked to our forever icon Queen Latifah for inspiration. “I pulled from everybody who’s a boss that I’ve seen,” she shared.
For TCF readers, that Queen Latifah reference lands exactly where it should. She has always been the blueprint for what plus size, powerful and fully in charge looks like on screen. Seeing Brely channel that same energy into Missy felt like a full circle moment we did not know we needed.
And here is something that made the performance even more special. Some of the best moments in the series were never in the script. Brely shared that there were spontaneous ad lib moments so raw and real that Silk White made the call to leave them in. “There was some ad lib moments that he left in there,” she said. “I could just feel it in my soul.” You can absolutely feel it on screen. Those are the moments where you forget you are watching a performance.
Now Let’s Talk About the Outfits Because We Absolutely Have to
One thing that makes Love Don’t Pay the Bills such a strong entry in the conversation around plus size women in leading TV roles is how intentional every element of the production is, including the wardrobe. Brely gave a major shoutout to her stylist Fiskani of The Ivy Showroom, who was behind every single look in the series.
And the looks were not playing around. “When she was pulling things out the bag, I was like, is that gonna fit?” Brely laughed. “She had my legs out, she had me in bodysuits. I was like, okay!” She admitted that watching herself back gave her a moment, but her conclusion was clear. “You know what? I’m glad I did.”
We loved that so much that we tracked down Fiskani directly, and she had some things to say that every plus size woman needs to hear and screenshot immediately.
First: stretch fabric is not the law. “There is no one particular fabric that works for curvy people,” she said. “It’s really about draping and how the garment is made.” And she had receipts. That pink dress everyone was talking about? “The pink dress with the tassels, that doesn’t give at all. That’s an un-stretched item. We altered it and contoured it to follow her curves, but that was not a stretchy dress at all.” A completely non-stretch dress, tailored to perfection. Write that down.
Which brings us to her second point: tailoring is the move and not nearly enough of us are using it. “You never know. It still may look great. A blazer may be structured better because it doesn’t stretch.” The next time you walk past something and think it will not work for your body, consider what a good tailor could actually do with it first.
Fiskani also pulled back the curtain on the creative process behind Missy’s wardrobe arc. “Upon reading the script, we were able to dive deep into what her character was,” she explained. “We built the wardrobe from when you meet her. She’s not so sinister at first.”
But as Missy moves further into her darker self across the episodes, the clothes track right along with her. “She’s willing to go all the way to the end and the dark side, if you may. And so we just kept building and building, showing more. In those kind of characters, more is not more. She needs more and more and more. We tried to convey that in wardrobe.”
The shift is impossible to miss. Missy opens the series in a vibrant colors and patterns then by episodes 4 and 5, she is draped in deep black, at one point punctuated by black lipstick. It is fashion as storytelling at its finest and it is happening on a plus size body that owns every single frame.
The Bigger Picture
Here is what we want you to carry with you after you finish binge watching all five episodes. plus size women in leading TV roles is not a trend. It is not a moment. It is a long overdue correction, and every time a show like Love Don’t Pay the Bills gets it right, we need to show up for it, watch it, share it and talk about it loudly.
The industry pays attention to numbers. When plus size women in leading TV roles generates buzz, drives reviews and builds viewership, it sends a message that cannot be ignored. So this is your sign to go run up those Tubi numbers and tell everybody you know.
Brely said it best and we are going to let her close this out: “Society has made us want to be shy or tucked away. But I’m kicking down the doors for the Curvy Girls. Period.”
Plus size women get the guy, get the money and get the opportunities. We always have. The screen is just finally starting to catch up.
Love Don’t Pay the Bills is streaming now exclusively on Tubi. Go watch it, share it and run it up.
