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Technically Speaking Audiobook By Michael Elliot cover art

Technically Speaking

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Technically Speaking

By: Michael Elliot
Narrated by: Coco Jones, Keith Powers, Queen Latifah, full cast
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In this captivating and heartwarming romance from award-winning screenwriter Michael Elliot (Just Wright, Brown Sugar) and executive producer Queen Latifah, Oakland-bred LaVeesha “Vee” Gilliam (Coco Jones) is a determined single mother of an autistic son and a gifted aspiring coder. When Vee loses her job as a food-services worker at the onsite restaurant at Grapengine, a large Silicon Valley tech company, she’s unable to pay for her son’s much-needed specialized education. By a twist of fate, mistaken identity, and her tech skills, Vee meets Troy Wilson (Keith Powers), the company’s wealthy founder and CEO and a wunderkind in the tech industry, who believes that Vee is a college-educated techie who works at his company. Fate meets Vee’s raw talent, ideas, and work ethic, and both her career and romance blooms–but what will happen when Vee’s true identity is revealed?

©2024 Flavor Unit (P)2024 Audible Originals, LLC. African American Black Creators Romantic Comedy Feel-Good Heartfelt
Michael Elliot
Queen Latifah

About the Creator

When Essence Magazine compiled their 15 Favorite Black Romantic Comedies of All Time list, Michael Elliot was the only screenwriter with two films listed: Brown Sugar, which is considered a hip-hop classic, and Just Wright, which starred Queen Latifah and Common, and for which Michael won the 2010 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture. Michael also wrote the family film Like Mike, which raked in more than $60 million at the box office.
More recently, Michael co-wrote R&B with his partner Cory Tynan. Described as a modern-day retelling of the story of Ruth and Boaz, an iconic Biblical love story, the romance will stream on Netflix in 2025. Additionally, Michael and his partner wrote Relationship Goals, a romantic comedy for Amazon Studios that will also stream in 2025.
When he’s not writing, Michael is an accomplished entrepreneur. Among his successes is Hammer & Nails Grooming Shop for Guys, a luxury men’s grooming lounge, which Michael founded in 2013. Today, the company has more than 40 locations across the country.

About the Producer and Performer

Queen Latifah is a Grammy, Golden Globe, and SAG Award-winning and Oscar-nominated artist, actress, producer, label president, author, and entrepreneur. Film credits include Chicago (Oscar, Golden Globe, and SAG-nominated), Life Support (Golden Globe and SAG Award wins, Emmy-nominated), Bessie (SAG win, Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated), Jungle Fever, Bringing Down the House, The Secret Life of Bees, Hairspray, Just Wright, The Last Holiday, Beauty Shop, the hit comedy Girls Trip, Hustle, among many others. Latifah currently stars and is an executive producer on the CBS series reboot of The Equalizer, which quickly became TV’s #1 scripted series. Other television projects include Living Single and Star. Flavor Unit Entertainment, the production company owned and operated by Latifah and her partner Shakim Compere, is behind many of the hit film and television projects she has been a part of. Latifah has not only been recognized for acting: She has earned six Grammy Award nominations and a Grammy Award for Best Solo Rap Performance in 1994. In 2004, she was nominated for Best Female Rap Solo Performance for Go Head. In 2005, she was nominated for Best Jazz Vocal Album for The Dana Owens Album, and in 2008, she was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Trav’lin Light.

Coco Jones
Keith Powers
Credits

About the Performer

Coco Jones has captivated the world with her timeless artistry, sensual voice and emotive songs to become R&B’s breakout artist. In 2024, she was nominated for an impressive five Grammy Awards—including the coveted Best New Artist accolade—and won for Best R&B Performance for her sultry hit “ICU.” She began recording at the age of 9 and was called to acting—first as a recurring guest on Disney’s musical sketch comedy So Random!, and in 2012 as the golden-voiced love interest in the network’s TV movie Let It Shine. Since then, she’s showcased her formidable acting skills playing Hilary Banks in Peacock’s Fresh Prince reboot, Bel-Air and Netflix’s Vampires vs. the Bronx.
Her visibility has made her a role model for beautiful and talented dark-skinned Black women. "I always wanted that representation that my dreams were possible growing up," she shares. Being an actor has given Jones a unique empathy that she translates into music. "It definitely informs my music because I like to tell stories in my songs," she says. "My actor mind will put me right there." This confessional style began making waves with 2018’s “Just My Luck,” a defiant anthem against the entertainment industry (“Does my confidence offend you?” she wonders. “Cookie-cutter enough for you? Is my melanin offensive?”).
She signed with High Standardz/Def Jam in 2022 and released the EP What I Didn’t Tell You with the lead single “ICU,” which has been certified platinum. The song was lauded by fans and critics alike and peaked at #1 on the Billboard R&B Airplay chart, leading to Best New Artist wins at the BET Awards, The Soul Train Awards and NAACP Image Awards.

About the Performer

Keith Powers recently starred in two leading roles in upcoming Netflix films, including Uglies opposite Joey King based on the widely popular YA book, directed by McG. As the largest YA budgeted film Netflix has made thus far the film is poised to be an event film for Netflix with Keith portraying the outlier rebel “David.” Uglies will be released September 13th.
Additionally, Keith also stars in The Perfect Find for Netflix, a May-December comedy romance opposite Gabrielle Union that landed Keith the NAACP Award for Best Actor in a Film. Currently, he can also be seen in Amazon’s Emperor of Ocean Park series.
Keith also adds two exciting independents to his resume with the exciting neo-noir thriller Door Mouse opposite Hayley Law ( Riverdale), directed by up-and-coming director Avan Jogia for Highland Film Group. As Keith continues to take on diverse roles, he co-stars with Michael Richardson, James Badge Dale and Liam Neeson in the surreal New York indie On Our Way.
Keith was also recently seen in the sci-fi thriller The Tomorrow War opposite Chris Pratt, released July 2021 from Amazon, Paramount and Skydance and is well-known for his roles in F. Gary Gray’s Straight Outta Compton, Netflix's anthology series What/If from EP Robert Zemeckis, opposite Academy Award winner Renée Zellweger, and BET’s event series The New Edition Story, which set ratings records for the network with 29 million viewers the week of its premiere. Other credits include Famous in Love and Fear the Walking Dead.

Written by: Michael Elliot

Voice Performances by: Coco Jones, Keith Powers, and Queen Latifah
Additional Voice Performances by: Alistair McKenzie, Antonique Smith, Chris Pipkin, Garrett Davis, Gayle Samuels, Kee Seymore, Kelsey Kummerl, Krystin Goodwin, Landon Dubois, LaNisa Frederick, Levenix Riddle, Matt Steele, Nathaniel Weiss, Rae-Shan Nate Barclift, Rodney Rikai, Ron G., Samantha Mumba, Sarahjeen François, Scott Victor Nelson, Scott Rosendall, Stephen O’Mahoney, and William Stanford Davis
Executive Produced by: Queen Latifah and Shakim Compere at Flavor Unit Entertainment
Audible’s Executive Producer: Miranda Haymon
AT WILL MEDIA’s Executive Producers: Will Malnati and Rosie Guerin
Directed by: Taylor Reynolds
Additional Direction: Michael Elliot
Produced by: Yaneley Arty at Flavor Unit Entertainment, and Briggon Snow and Taylor Hosking for AT WILL MEDIA
Sr. Supervising Producer: Ashley Taylor from AT WILL MEDIA
Director of Post Production: Seth Richardson from AT WILL MEDIA.
Editing by: Andrew Holzberger, Greg Deavens II, and Zach Grappone from AT WILL MEDIA
Post-Audio Production by: SOUND+FISSION
SOUND + FISSION’s Executive Producer is Bryan Master
Sound design by: Jeremy Thal
Sound mixing and mastering by: Devin Greenwood
Music supervision by: Bryan Master from SOUND + FISSION and Greg Deavens II from AT WILL MEDIA, with music editing by Bryan Master
Music provided by: APM
Additional music by: Bryan Master
Casting by: Natasha Ward
Legal Support and Clearance by: Carolyn Schurr Levin at Miller Korzenik Sommers Rayman LLP, and Mandy Hackenberg of Clear Rights.
Special Thanks to: Abigail Houck and Matthew Lerner at Stony Brook University, Brian Tashima of Autism Empowerment, Margeaux Weston from Tessera, and Eric Aaron
Audible Studios, Head of Production: Mike Charzuk
Audible Head of Content, North America: Kate Navin
Audible Chief Content Officer: Rachel Ghiazza
Copyright 2024 by Flavor Unit Entertainment
Sound Recording Copyright 2024 by Audible Originals, LLC

Heartwarming Romance • Engaging Cast Performances • Full Cast Narration • Authentic Autism Representation
Highly rated for:
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I loveeeed this story! The production was awesome. I love the storyline, the reliability and the relevance of the need of diversity in tech

Overdue Diverse Representation in Tech!

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This was a great story. I would love to hear how Vee and Troy’s relationship goes. Maybe a part 2!

Love it!!

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As an avid fan of “black” Cinderella, this story did it for meeeeee.

Now, there are things that I loved about this book.
There are elements of this book that are a poor fit for my walk with Abba God. And that’s is ALWAYS a focus for me when consuming media.

I love this depiction of being black in tech! Did I mention that I’m currently working on a “black in tech” story? Yeah, but that’s not this right now.

I love dramatized audiobooks. They are typically super short, but are great for my active mind. This title is also on the plus catalog. If you need/want a quick read, this is worth your time. The sound score is top tier. Whew! The characters are great. The storyline is great.

The focus of being a single parent with an autistic child is absolutely amazing. That part alone makes me give this story a 10/10. I would definitely read another with a prayerful eye on the cussing, sex outside of marriage, and the presence of a gay best friend. Some things are only necessary to please a world of sin. And that’s on that.

Black Cinderella in Tech

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Loved it, great story and great cast, only thing is I could use a sequel tho!!

So good!

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Not long enough to develop characters, but...lived it anyway!!! Readers and listeners need more of the same!

Hit on real issues of the day. Having a special needs kid is no joke!

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LOVED the full cast, performance was superb! The story was really good except the end, like how did we get there? The parts in between didn't quite add up to those 3 words being said at the end. But this would make a great hallmark/llifetime type movie. Recommend!

Cute story!

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Wonderful narration. Actors did a great job. I could “see it” in my mind. Achieved the rom-com affect although it’s a short story.

Great story!

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I loved the whole book. Good job on getting Coco Jones as the lead, she is why I actually came to check this book out. My little cousin is autistic and I can see him in Oz, he’s not as advanced at 5 years old (today, actually) but he is such a cool and smart kid. Now, I loved hearing it but I’m going to need a visual, at some point. Even if it’s a limited animated series on Nexflix or something. I also, need a part two. You can’t just leave me hanging with Troy and Vee falling in love at the end and that’s it.

It’s the fact that Michael got me to listen to a whole book, without being able to see a visual.

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This was very well put together. I wish it was longer but I enjoyed the voices and the storyline.

Cute story

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I nice delightful romance when you don’t have the time for a full length novel.

Short and Sweet

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