Formed in 2025, TKC is a trio of founders, performers and creators — Tonya Berry, Kenya Jones and Candis Brown — who produce bold, original content that showcases the power of collaboration.
In October, they launched their first short form online series, “Next Door,” an interactive drama where viewers weigh in on the characters’ next moves. The scripts shift week-to-week based entirely on audience votes, meaning no one — including the actors — knows where the story will go next.
Episodes air every Thursday at 8:30 p.m. on YouTube and Facebook. The series is produced in Dayton.
The story centers on three characters — Dede, Ebony and Keisha, played by Berry, Jones and Brown, respectively — who explore the liminal, hair-raising building next door. Many of the show’s events draw from Berry’s real experiences living beside an abandoned historical site in Trotwood, an old feed mill.
In the narrative, there are mysterious men with shovels (burying things slightly more mysterious), lost shoes, 911 calls featuring real police footage, potential paranormal activity, front and back door cameras, intermittent confessionals à la “The Real World,” Fred Gwynne-like prophecies about trains, and, as of episode six, some ghost-busting.
There are 10 episodes planned for this season, which premiered Oct. 30. Brown’s children, Relan Johnson and Dante Brown, have filmed and edited the episodes released so far.
For Berry, the story hits close to home.
Three years ago, Berry decided to quit her job at the Dayton Convention Center and was evicted a few months later. She eventually moved into a house in Trotwood that shared a lot with the old feed mill — the inspiration for this season of “Next Door.”
“Me and that building was fighting everyday. I would go over there and talk with that building,” Berry said. “When I lived in the house, the girls would come over and they would take pictures of the building and say how creepy it was. And they said, Let’s turn it into a story.”
Berry now serves as Project Manager and Head of Marketing for TKC, drawing from her expertise in large-scale event logistics and audience engagement. She’s also a seasoned performer, having appeared in six stage productions with companies including New Light Enterprise.
Jones is a multi-faceted creative — a songwriter, spoken word artist and author of the books “Priceless” and “Can of Oil.” She also made her starring film debut in “Operation Roll Play” in November.
Beyond the stage and screen, Brown is a singer, vocal artist and event decor specialist, serving as the Creative Designer for TKC.
All three co-write and produce “Next Door,” their first project together.
The episodes are outlined with loose scripts but rely heavily on improvisation, much like Larry David’s process on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” — the purpose of each scene is clear, but how the actors arrive there is up to them.
Each episode ends with a cliffhanger question, a choose-your-own-adventure moment for viewers: “Should they save her or let her sink?” or “Is it time to get a pew pew?” After the Thursday premieres, the audience has until Monday at noon to vote. By the weekend, the trio usually has a sense of where the story is heading, and they build from there.
Sometimes that immediacy forces fast pivots. Even when TKC thinks viewers will choose one option — like Dede calling her flock instead of the cops — they’re sometimes wrong. That was the case in episode four, “It’s a.........911.” After an “emergency” writers’ meeting, the trio decided to include Berry’s real police footage in the episode, complete with empty skyward shots and her thumb over the camera lens for a “Blair Witch Project” effect.
Eventually, Berry says, the goal is to finally go inside of the building — to see what’s next door.
Although fictionalized, Berry’s real experience with the feed mill grounds the story.
“It’s a highly passionate project for me, just because I know what I went through during that time,” Berry said. “They did come over and help develop the story, but it felt more spiritual for me to have lived there for one year. I became obsessed with the building. God placed this actress next to this movie set to capture the story.”
TKC isn’t promising anything yet, but Berry estimates they’ll release season two in April. If audience choices continue shaping the script, what happens next door will depend on who’s watching.
Brandon Berry covers the music and arts scene in Dayton and Southwest Ohio. Reach him at branberry100@gmail.com.
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