Sabrina Elba & Ashley Thomas To Star In Rom-Com ‘Not Like Us’

Writer-director duo Ramla Ali and Richard A. Moore have wrapped production in East London on their debut feature Not Like Us, a romantic comedy starring Sabrina Elba and Ashley Thomas. 

The film follows a Somali single mother who defies her family and culture by falling in love with a Jamaican man. “The official synopsis reads: Amina Hassan (Elba) is a forty-something pharmacist and a single mother who has built everything herself: her business, her reputation, her beautiful, controlled life, and she would like it to stay that way. Edmund Clarke (Thomas) has other ideas. 

“Complicating matters are the three community aunties, Hawa, Safia, and Maryam, who have decided that what Amina needs is a husband. Never mind that their own marriages could generously be described as works in progress. Not Like Us is a story about love, desire, and the right to choose your own happiness, told entirely from within the community it depicts.” Sofia Oxenham also stars in the film.

Ali and Moore co-wrote and co-directed Not Like Us. The pair have a direct connection with the material. The pair married in 2016, and Moore, a white British man, converted to Islam. Ali was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, and grew up in East London. Ali is also a former Olympic boxer. Her life will be chronicled in the feature biopic In The Shadows, which will be released in UK cinemas in October. 

Not Like Us was independently financed after what Ali and Moore described as difficulties working within the traditional British funding infrastructure. Sunita Mirchandani Hyams and Luke Hyams of Pangaea Group produced the feature alongside Andrew Conrad and Gina Carter of 22 Summers, with Ali and Moore. The executive producer is Richard Fearn of Affine Films. 

The production team is aiming for a 2027 launch.