HBO Orders ‘Euphoria’ to Series, Drake Joins as Executive Producer

The high school-set drama will star Zendaya, Maude Apatow and Storm Reid, among others.

HBO has given a series order to teen drama Euphoria and added a big name to the show’s behind-the-scenes team.

Drake has joined the series as an executive producer of the A24 series, HBO announced along with the series pickup. The hip-hop star’s manager, Future the Prince, will also be an EP.

Euphoria is based on a 2012 Israeli series of the same name and follows a group of high school students as they “navigate drugs, sex, identity, trauma, social media, love and friendship.” Sam Levinson (HBO’s Wizard of Lies) adapted the show and is writing all 10 episodes.

Zendaya (The Greatest Showman, Spider-Man: Homecoming) heads the cast, which also includes Maude Apatow, Brian “Astro” Bradley, Angus McLoud, Eric Dane, Alexa Demie, Jacob Elordi, Barbie Ferreira, Nika King, Storm Reid, Hunter Schafer and Sydney Sweeney.

In addition to Levinson, Drake and Future the Prince, the executive producers include Ron Leshem and Daphna Levin, creators of the Israeli series; Ravi Nandan, Kevin Turen, Hadas Mozes Lichtenstein, Tmira Yardeni, Mirit Toovi, Yoram Mokady and Gary Lennon. Augustine Frizzell directed the pilot and is a co-EP on the episode.

HBO ordered the Euphoria pilot in March. At the time, Francesca Orsi, svp drama at HBO, described the original series as “Kids meets Trainspotting, and what might exist when parents don’t exist.”

The series pickup also comes in the wake of AT&T buying HBO and other Time Warner assets. John Stankey, head of the newly named Warner Media, told HBO employees he wanted the premium channel to produce “more hours of engagement”than it currently does.

Last week at the Television Critics Association press tour, HBO president of programming Casey Bloys downplayed the notion that HBO would fundamentally change: “There are no plans to dilute the HBO brand in favor of volume of programming,” he said.