Written, Directed and Produced
by
Thada Catalon
WELCOME TO THE GROUP CHAT
Everybody has opinions.
Everybody has receipts.
Everybody has somebody they should’ve blocked three years ago.
Welcome to Butterfly.
THE SERIES
The first original series produced under the T-CAT Studios banner, Butterfly is a 33-episode vertical dramedy serving friendship, romance, hard truths, questionable decisions, and the kind of emotional chaos that usually begins with, “Girl, don’t be mad, but...”
Set in Atlanta and created for today’s digital audience, the series delivers bite-sized episodes with the heart of premium television. It finds the comedy in growing up, the heartbreak in growing apart, and the hard-won truth that choosing peace sometimes means disappointing people who were perfectly comfortable with the old you.
Butterfly marks a new chapter for T-CAT Studios, one filled with bold characters, culturally specific stories, and enough mess to keep the group chat active.
Butterfly was conceived as a vertical series because storytelling continues to evolve alongside the way audiences consume entertainment. Rather than viewing vertical as a limitation, T-CAT Studios embraces it as an opportunity to tell emotionally rich stories in a format designed for today's viewers.
OVERVIEW
EVERYBODY HAS A TARIN
You know exactly who she is.
The friend who can talk you into vandalizing somebody’s house at thirty-three years old and somehow make it feel like community service.
The friend who knows all your secrets, all your exes, all your family drama, and at least three stories that could ruin your life if they ever made it to Instagram.
The friend who would fight for you, lie for you, bail you out of jail, help you hide the body, and then somehow become the reason you need an alibi in the first place.
For Havan, Tarin has been that friend for over twenty years.
Which is exactly why she never noticed the problem.
Because that's what happens. You spend two decades laughing it off, smoothing it over, and telling yourself "that's just Tarin being Tarin" until one day you realize you've been performing a whole personality just to keep the peace.
Funny, sharp, messy, and emotionally honest, Butterfly lives in the space between belly laughs and heartbreak.
Think of it as the group chat you never leave, even when you probably should. Somebody is always sending memes, dropping tea, and keeping the energy up. That somebody is usually Tarin.
Until Tarin sends a voice note at 2 a.m. that is eleven minutes long, starts with, “Girl, I just want to say…” and ends with, “You are DEAD to me.”
It’s giving best-friend energy. Until it’s giving blocked and reported.
SYNOPSIS
Havan Cole built a career teaching other people how to spot red flags, set boundaries, and walk away from anything that isn’t good for them.
Then she meets Ace, a successful attorney who listens, communicates, and is somehow emotionally available. Their connection should be good news.
Her hilarious, magnetic, chaos-loving best friend, Tarin, treats it like a hostile takeover.
Tarin doesn’t know what to do with a Havan who suddenly has options. What starts as a few offhand comments escalates into staged emergencies, guilt trips, and a full campaign to remind Havan who’s supposed to come first.
Soon, the tension spreads through their circle. Old resentments surface, alliances shift, and everybody finally starts saying the things they’ve been holding in for years.
Havan must decide whether keeping the peace is worth losing herself, while Tarin fights to preserve the version of their friendship that has always worked for her.
In Butterfly, choosing yourself isn’t a wellness slogan.
It’s an act of war.
Because some people will love you forever. Others will love you forever, as long as you stay exactly the same.
CHARACTERS
HAVAN COLE
Havan can spot a red flag from three zip codes away, as long as it belongs to somebody else. A successful life coach and content creator, she makes a living teaching women to set boundaries, choose themselves, and stop accepting crumbs. In real life, she is smart, warm, funny, and so committed to keeping the peace that she has spent years quietly negotiating against herself. Havan knows exactly who she tells everyone else to become. The problem is becoming her.
TARIN MONROE - WHITFIELD
Tarin is the friend who can turn a bad idea into a group activity. Magnetic, hilarious, fiercely loyal, and allergic to accountability, she loves hard, argues harder, and can build a closing argument around why your boundary is actually disrespectful to her. She is the life of every room, the keeper of every secret, and the reason somebody eventually has to say, “Girl, that is not what happened.”
ACE LATTIMORE
Ace is a successful personal injury attorney whose biggest personality trait, according to this friend group, is being suspiciously normal. Grounded, confident, and effortlessly put together, he has no interest in chaos disguised as passion or control disguised as loyalty. Ace is kind without being soft, generous without keeping score, and mature enough to know that love should not feel like a hostage negotiation.
MILES WHITFIELD
Miles is a thoughtful, conflict-avoidant man trapped inside the body of somebody who looks like he should have better boundaries. Smart, dependable, and just corny enough to be charming, he has spent years smoothing things over before they can explode. Unfortunately, peacekeeping becomes a full-time job when you are married to Tarin, and Miles may finally be running out of overtime.
CAM ELLIS
Cam has the kind of dry wit that can end an argument in six words and ruin your whole afternoon. Observant, blunt, and surgical with the truth, she rarely raises her voice because precision does more damage. Cam knows the group’s history, remembers every receipt, and has long since stopped confusing silence with peace.
JUNE COLE
June is Havan’s sharp-eyed, unbothered mother, an Asian woman with a Black Southern accent and absolutely no patience for foolishness. Warm when it counts and honest whether it counts or not, she can diagnose a twenty-year friendship problem before the tea gets cold. June loves her daughter deeply, but she refuses to cosign the lies Havan tells herself just to stay comfortable.
ROLAND “ROLO” LATTIMORE
Known as Baby Unc, Rolo is loud, unfiltered, and just incel-adjacent enough to make every woman in the room pause before deciding whether to laugh or argue. He delivers outdated relationship theories with the confidence of a man hosting a podcast nobody asked for, then follows them with a piece of street wisdom so sharp everybody has to sit with it. Rolo can be ridiculous, offensive, accidentally insightful, and somehow right for all the wrong reasons.
FOLLOW THE JOURNEY
Butterfly is currently in pre-production, and I'm documenting every step of the journey from script to screen. Follow along as I share the creative process, production updates, behind-the-scenes moments, and everything that goes into building an independent series from the ground up.
Whether you're a filmmaker, storyteller, or simply curious about how a series comes to life, I'd love for you to come along for the ride.