Since the second Trump administration took office just over a year ago, a prevailing narrative in Hollywood has already taken shape: Studios are swiftly dismantling the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that spread through the industry in the wake of #MeToo and the 2020 racial reckonings.
These changes are difficult to quantify, but the available data shows that, on-screen at least, Hollywood has already grown significantly less diverse.
Of seven categories of stories in TV series tracked by Luminate Film & TV — Asian, Black, Latinx, LGBTQ+, Disability, Indigenous, Women-Centered and Feminist — almost all have decreased significantly among U.S.-produced content since their peak TV-era highs.
While Women-Centered and Feminist stories (which are similar but do not completely overlap) have held strong, every other tracked category sank after topping out in 2021 or 2022, with some reaching new post-peak TV lows in 2025.
Of course, the broader post-peak TV contraction has led to a significant reduction in U.S. content overall; however, even when accounting for this, diverse titles have shrunk as a proportion of total output. The seven categories, in the aggregate, topped out at 43% of U.S. TV premieres in 2023 and dropped to 35% in 2025.
It should be noted that these declines are not entirely attributable to Trump, per se. As Hollywood moved out of the peak TV era following the 2022 streaming market correction, some industry observers were already voicing concern that the overall contraction would lead to a downturn for diverse titles.
The timing of the declines — already visible in 2023 and 2024, before the president returned to office — suggests those fears were justified.
Still, it’s hard to imagine the situation getting anything but worse from here. The solution may simply be creators taking matters into their own hands, as they have in the independent film scene.
I presented this data late last month at a panel for the 2026 Kidscreen Summit, a conference focusing on the state and future of kids-targeted media. While the DEI data for kids content is even more dispiriting (diverse TV series peaked at just 27% of U.S. premieres in 2023 and fell to 13% by 2025), the panel also featured people on the creative side still striving to put underrepresented communities on screens.
One of them was Roye Okupe, a Nigeria-born artist who self-published his own superhero comic books for nearly a decade before landing a deal to bring his graphic novel Iyanu to the screen via Warner Bros.’ Cartoon Network. (Notably, the series was financed and produced by independent animation studio Lion Forge Entertainment rather than Warner Bros. Discovery.)
Okupe is also at work on an independent animated film, Malika: Warrior Queen, based on another of his books. “We need to start to look beyond the traditional methods,” he said during the panel. “We’re looking at coproductions in the UK, France, South Africa … I’m not here to say screw Hollywood, I’m just a fan of working with people that see value in me.”
And of course there’s always YouTube, where another panelist, Sadaf Muncy, has been rolling out Paris & Pups, a project aimed at supporting and encouraging neurodivergent kids. (The animated series is inspired and produced by Paris Hilton, who was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult.)
“One of the things we love about being on YouTube is we’re able to actually talk about the things we need to talk about. We’re not restricted by some of the challenges that some of the streamers and networks may be [facing],” said Muncy, who serves as EVP of Development & Production at HappyNest Entertainment, which is behind the series.
While others may not have access to Paris Hilton-level resources, the advent of the creator economy has certainly shown there are plenty of tools available to create for those willing and able to use them. As such, Hollywood’s next wave of diverse content may not come from Hollywood at all.
