MEDIA ALERT: Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson and Tarik "Black Thought" Trotter of Legendary Hip-Hop Collective The Roots and Two One Five Entertainment Ink First-Look Deal with Universal Television Alternative Studio and Universal Television

· Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson and Tarik "Black Thought" Trotter of Grammy Award-winning, multiplatinum hip-hop collective The Roots and their production company, Two One Five Entertainment, have inked a first-look deal with Universal Television Alternative Studio and Universal Television.

· The three-year deal covers development on scripted, unscripted and specials programming across television and digital content platforms, expanding The Roots' 10-year-plus relationship with NBC.

· "This deal is very important to us as we've been content producers and storytellers for our entire career," said Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson. "A significant investment from Universal Television Alternative Studio and Universal Television in our vision allows us to share these stories on a much larger scale. Tarik and I see this as the next chapter to our careers, and we are very involved in the entire process. I'm directing, Tarik is writing and we both are producing."

· "Many of our initial projects have been music-centric content, and one of our goals is to become the premiere hub for music storytelling - a safe space for these stories to be shared across a variety of platforms," added Tarik "Black Thought" Trotter. "Eventually we will expand outside of music with our stories. However, as we all know, every story has a rhythm and Two One Five Entertainment will harness that rhythm and create well-produced, compelling content."

· "The Roots are innovators and cultural tastemakers whose breadth of musical knowledge is unparalleled," said Meredith Ahr, President, NBC Alternative and Reality Group. "The band has been a cornerstone of NBC's late-night programming for over a decade, and we are excited to extend our collaboration across a diverse slate of projects to bring even more compelling storytelling to our audience."

· The Roots is the official house band on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," where Questlove also serves as the show's Musical Director.

· About Two One Five Entertainment: Two One Five Entertainment, founded by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson and Tarik "Black Thought" Trotter, is a full-service storytelling and content development media company. The foundation of the company is built upon compelling storytelling through the creation of films, short form and long form digital content, theatrical experiences and documentary styled content. Current projects in development include "Hip Hop Songs that Shook America," a docuseries that premiered on AMC to rave reviews last fall; the recently completed "Black Woodstock," a feature documentary about the "Harlem Cultural & Arts Festival" in 1969; a full slate of self-produced short-form music-based content distributed on You Tube and two Broadway productions;" Black No More," in partnership with Oscar-winning writer John Ridley; and "Soul Train the Musical". Two One Five has produced content for partners such as AMC, Disney, Amazon, VH1, BET, You Tube and Twitch. Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Tarik Trotter, The Roots and Two One Five are all represented by Shawn Gee of Maverick Management.

· About Universal Television Alternative Studio: Launched in 2016, Universal Television Alternative Studio is a leading supplier of hit unscripted content and formats, and creates, develops and produces a diverse slate of original series domestically and internationally. The studio's most recent breakout hits include the two biggest successes among new series launched during the summer of 2019, the songwriting competition "Songland" and the comedy competition "Bring the Funny." The studio is responsible for the high-stakes game show "The Wall," which has been sold into 27 territories internationally, and "Hollywood Game Night," which has been remade across 21 territories. Also on the studio's slate are "Making It" from Emmy Award-nominated hosts Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman, Dwayne Johnson's "The Titan Games," Emmy Award-winning "World of Dance" from Jennifer Lopez, USA Network's "The Biggest Loser," Bravo's "Blind Date" and History's "In Search Of." Upcoming projects include comedy variety event series "That's My Jam," hosted by Jimmy Fallon, hybrid alternative-scripted series "True Story," co-hosted by Ed Helms and Randall Park, the tiny-challenge game show "Small Fortune," premium landmark series "The New World" from BBC Natural History Unit, "Thanks a Million" for Quibi as well as original talk show series "The Kid's Tonight Show" from Jimmy Fallon and "Saturday Night Live"-themed documentary series "Who Wrote That?" for Peacock. Universal Television Alternative Studio is a division of NBCUniversal.

· About Universal Television: Universal Television, a division of NBCUniversal Content Studios, is one of the largest and most successful television production companies in the United States. The studio currently produces more than 50 primetime comedies and dramas as well as late night programs for a variety of network, cable, and digital platforms. Acclaimed series produced by Universal Television include "The Good Place," "Russian Doll," "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," "Master of None," "Superstore," "A.P. Bio," "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," "New Amsterdam," "Law & Order: SVU" and "Chicago Fire" (and its spinoffs), among numerous others, including all of NBC's successful late night programs. Universal Television is a division of NBCUniversal, which develops, produces and markets the best entertainment, news and information to a global audience.