Steven Canals is ready to spread the Words…

FX is developing the limited series 81 Words,from the 39-year-old Afro-Puerto Rican screenwriter, producer and Pose co-creator, Pal Pictures and 20th Century Fox Television.

Written by Canals, the series centers on gay rights pioneers Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings.

It’s based on Alix Spiegel’s award-winning This American Life episode, “81 Words” and the soon-to-be-released PBS documentary Cured,directed by Bennett Singer and Patrick Sammon.

Until 1974, the medical establishment considered gay people sexually deviant and diagnosed them as mentally ill.

81 Words tells the true story of gay activists Kameny an Gittings, who risked their careers and reputations to conspire with the GAYPA – a clandestine group of closeted psychiatrists – and challenge the American Psychiatric Association’s definition of homosexuality.

Canals will executive- produce the project via his Story Ave. Productions.

Canals is the co-creator and executive producer, alongside Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, of the Emmy– and Golden Globe-nominated and Peabody Award-winning drama series Pose.

The series, named one of the Best TV Programs of the Year by the American Film Institute in 2018 and 2019, will return for its third season in 2021. 

Canals was a staff writer on Freeform’s Dead of Summer and made his television directorial debut with the eighth episode of the second season of Pose titled “Revelations.”