Bringing What to Expect When You're NOT Expecting to Life
When a personal story meets a talented cast and creative team, something special can happen.
What to Expect When You're NOT Expecting is a 2024 queer comedy short film written and directed by Jackson Tropp. Blending sharp humor with heartfelt storytelling, the film explores the unexpected challenges of starting a family and the realities of navigating parenthood as a same-sex couple.
The story follows Spencer (Jackson Tropp) and his husband Elliot (Todd A. Jackson) as they encounter obstacle after obstacle on their journey toward becoming fathers. Meanwhile, Spencer's best friend London (Whitney Leavitt) faces her own complicated relationship with parenthood.
At its heart, the film is about love, patience and finding humor in life's less-than-perfect plans.
From Script to Screen
For Jackson, What to Expect When You're NOT Expecting marked his directorial debut, bringing a deeply personal perspective to a story that balances comedy with meaningful social themes.
The project brought together a talented group of performers and filmmakers to create a nearly 16-minute short that feels both entertaining and authentic.
Produced by Jackson Tropp, Ryan Tropp and James C. Velasquez, the film represents the kind of collaborative creative work we value at Troppical: bringing the right people together to turn an idea into something tangible.
A Cast That Brings the Story to Life
The film features Jackson Tropp as Spencer, Todd A. Jackson as Elliot and Whitney Leavitt as London.
Their performances bring humor, vulnerability and personality to a story about relationships, family and the unexpected turns that accompany both.
The supporting cast includes Peter Pasco, Mattilyn Rochester Kravitz, Tony Blass and Allie Arasi.
Finding an Audience Beyond the Set
Following its completion in 2024, What to Expect When You're NOT Expecting screened at film festivals across the country, including the Long Beach QFilm Festival, Cinema Diverse in Palm Springs and the Micheaux Film Festival in Los Angeles.
At the 2024 San Diego Short Film Festival, the production received recognition for Best Comedy, along with honorable mentions for supporting acting and first-time filmmaking.
For an independent short film, opportunities like these are an important part of bringing a story beyond its original creative team and connecting it with audiences.
More Than Just a Short Film
For Troppical, this project reflects our approach to creative production: start with a meaningful idea, build the right team and pay attention to the details that bring a story to life.
Whether we're supporting a film, developing branded content or coordinating a creative production, we believe good storytelling and thoughtful execution go hand in hand.
Have a story worth telling or a production project in mind? Let's talk about bringing it to life.
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