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Technically Speaking

By: Michael Elliot
Narrated by: Coco Jones, Keith Powers, Queen Latifah, full cast
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Publisher's summary

In this captivating and heartwarming romance from award-winning screenwriter Michael Elliot (Just Wright, Brown Sugar) and executive producer Queen Latifah, Oakland-bred LaVeesha “Vee” Gilliam (Coco Jones) is a determined single mother of an autistic son and a gifted aspiring coder. When Vee loses her job as a food-services worker at the onsite restaurant at Grapengine, a large Silicon Valley tech company, she’s unable to pay for her son’s much-needed specialized education. By a twist of fate, mistaken identity, and her tech skills, Vee meets Troy Wilson (Keith Powers), the company’s wealthy founder and CEO and a wunderkind in the tech industry, who believes that Vee is a college-educated techie who works at his company. Fate meets Vee’s raw talent, ideas, and work ethic, and both her career and romance blooms–but what will happen when Vee’s true identity is revealed?

©2024 Flavor Unit (P)2024 Audible Originals, LLC.
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About the Creator

When Essence Magazine compiled their 15 Favorite Black Romantic Comedies of All Time list, Michael Elliot was the only screenwriter with two films listed: Brown Sugar, which is considered a hip-hop classic, and Just Wright, which starred Queen Latifah and Common, and for which Michael won the 2010 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture. Michael also wrote the family film Like Mike, which raked in more than $60 million at the box office.
More recently, Michael co-wrote R&B with his partner Cory Tynan. Described as a modern-day retelling of the story of Ruth and Boaz, an iconic Biblical love story, the romance will stream on Netflix in 2025. Additionally, Michael and his partner wrote Relationship Goals, a romantic comedy for Amazon Studios that will also stream in 2025.
When he’s not writing, Michael is an accomplished entrepreneur. Among his successes is Hammer & Nails Grooming Shop for Guys, a luxury men’s grooming lounge, which Michael founded in 2013. Today, the company has more than 40 locations across the country.

About the Producer and Performer

Queen Latifah is a Grammy, Golden Globe, and SAG Award-winning and Oscar-nominated artist, actress, producer, label president, author, and entrepreneur. Film credits include Chicago (Oscar, Golden Globe, and SAG-nominated), Life Support (Golden Globe and SAG Award wins, Emmy-nominated), Bessie (SAG win, Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated), Jungle Fever, Bringing Down the House, The Secret Life of Bees, Hairspray, Just Wright, The Last Holiday, Beauty Shop, the hit comedy Girls Trip, Hustle, among many others. Latifah currently stars and is an executive producer on the CBS series reboot of The Equalizer, which quickly became TV’s #1 scripted series. Other television projects include Living Single and Star. Flavor Unit Entertainment, the production company owned and operated by Latifah and her partner Shakim Compere, is behind many of the hit film and television projects she has been a part of. Latifah has not only been recognized for acting: She has earned six Grammy Award nominations and a Grammy Award for Best Solo Rap Performance in 1994. In 2004, she was nominated for Best Female Rap Solo Performance for Go Head. In 2005, she was nominated for Best Jazz Vocal Album for The Dana Owens Album, and in 2008, she was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Trav’lin Light.

About the Performer

Coco Jones has captivated the world with her timeless artistry, sensual voice and emotive songs to become R&B’s breakout artist. In 2024, she was nominated for an impressive five Grammy Awards—including the coveted Best New Artist accolade—and won for Best R&B Performance for her sultry hit “ICU.” She began recording at the age of 9 and was called to acting—first as a recurring guest on Disney’s musical sketch comedy So Random!, and in 2012 as the golden-voiced love interest in the network’s TV movie Let It Shine. Since then, she’s showcased her formidable acting skills playing Hilary Banks in Peacock’s Fresh Prince reboot, Bel-Air and Netflix’s Vampires vs. the Bronx.
Her visibility has made her a role model for beautiful and talented dark-skinned Black women. "I always wanted that representation that my dreams were possible growing up," she shares. Being an actor has given Jones a unique empathy that she translates into music. "It definitely informs my music because I like to tell stories in my songs," she says. "My actor mind will put me right there." This confessional style began making waves with 2018’s “Just My Luck,” a defiant anthem against the entertainment industry (“Does my confidence offend you?” she wonders. “Cookie-cutter enough for you? Is my melanin offensive?”).
She signed with High Standardz/Def Jam in 2022 and released the EP What I Didn’t Tell You with the lead single “ICU,” which has been certified platinum. The song was lauded by fans and critics alike and peaked at #1 on the Billboard R&B Airplay chart, leading to Best New Artist wins at the BET Awards, The Soul Train Awards and NAACP Image Awards.

About the Performer

Keith Powers recently starred in two leading roles in upcoming Netflix films, including Uglies opposite Joey King based on the widely popular YA book, directed by McG. As the largest YA budgeted film Netflix has made thus far the film is poised to be an event film for Netflix with Keith portraying the outlier rebel “David.” Uglies will be released September 13th.
Additionally, Keith also stars in The Perfect Find for Netflix, a May-December comedy romance opposite Gabrielle Union that landed Keith the NAACP Award for Best Actor in a Film. Currently, he can also be seen in Amazon’s Emperor of Ocean Park series.
Keith also adds two exciting independents to his resume with the exciting neo-noir thriller Door Mouse opposite Hayley Law ( Riverdale), directed by up-and-coming director Avan Jogia for Highland Film Group. As Keith continues to take on diverse roles, he co-stars with Michael Richardson, James Badge Dale and Liam Neeson in the surreal New York indie On Our Way.
Keith was also recently seen in the sci-fi thriller The Tomorrow War opposite Chris Pratt, released July 2021 from Amazon, Paramount and Skydance and is well-known for his roles in F. Gary Gray’s Straight Outta Compton, Netflix's anthology series What/If from EP Robert Zemeckis, opposite Academy Award winner Renée Zellweger, and BET’s event series The New Edition Story, which set ratings records for the network with 29 million viewers the week of its premiere. Other credits include Famous in Love and Fear the Walking Dead.

Written by: Michael Elliot

Voice Performances by: Coco Jones, Keith Powers, and Queen Latifah
Additional Voice Performances by: Alistair McKenzie, Antonique Smith, Chris Pipkin, Garrett Davis, Gayle Samuels, Kee Seymore, Kelsey Kummerl, Krystin Goodwin, Landon Dubois, LaNisa Frederick, Levenix Riddle, Matt Steele, Nathaniel Weiss, Rae-Shan Nate Barclift, Rodney Rikai, Ron G., Samantha Mumba, Sarahjeen François, Scott Victor Nelson, Scott Rosendall, Stephen O’Mahoney, and William Stanford Davis
Executive Produced by: Queen Latifah and Shakim Compere at Flavor Unit Entertainment
Audible’s Executive Producer: Miranda Haymon
AT WILL MEDIA’s Executive Producers: Will Malnati and Rosie Guerin
Directed by: Taylor Reynolds
Additional Direction: Michael Elliot
Produced by: Yaneley Arty at Flavor Unit Entertainment, and Briggon Snow and Taylor Hosking for AT WILL MEDIA
Sr. Supervising Producer: Ashley Taylor from AT WILL MEDIA
Director of Post Production: Seth Richardson from AT WILL MEDIA.
Editing by: Andrew Holzberger, Greg Deavens II, and Zach Grappone from AT WILL MEDIA
Post-Audio Production by: SOUND+FISSION
SOUND + FISSION’s Executive Producer is Bryan Master
Sound design by: Jeremy Thal
Sound mixing and mastering by: Devin Greenwood
Music supervision by: Bryan Master from SOUND + FISSION and Greg Deavens II from AT WILL MEDIA, with music editing by Bryan Master
Music provided by: APM
Additional music by: Bryan Master
Casting by: Natasha Ward
Legal Support and Clearance by: Carolyn Schurr Levin at Miller Korzenik Sommers Rayman LLP, and Mandy Hackenberg of Clear Rights.
Special Thanks to: Abigail Houck and Matthew Lerner at Stony Brook University, Brian Tashima of Autism Empowerment, Margeaux Weston from Tessera, and Eric Aaron
Audible Studios, Head of Production: Mike Charzuk
Audible Head of Content, North America: Kate Navin
Audible Chief Content Officer: Rachel Ghiazza
Copyright 2024 by Flavor Unit Entertainment
Sound Recording Copyright 2024 by Audible Originals, LLC

What listeners say about Technically Speaking

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The production was amazing!

I loved all the voices ! The storyline was beautiful! I loved the mention of autism awareness

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Story Line

Coco's character was very believable. The relationship between mother and son did it for me. The boy's character was on point. The story could have been better if had been longer. I wanted more.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Love it !

My only con is that I wish it was longer.

I loved the story & the narration. I like the style of narration. Made me feel like I was listening to an actual movie.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Loved the story and narration!

Like other reviewers, I think this would be a great movie. Please give us more of the story and release it in a platform like Netflix or Hulu. This is really good and a great representation of lots people who have what it takes but aren’t in the position to get where they are trying to go.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Surprising

This was a new spin on how we listen to audiobooks excellent excellent I love the versatility. I love how it felt like it’s set a stage without me seeing one so it was descriptive fulfilling all the things I loved it.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Very entertaining

I saw this a week ago and refrained from downloading to listen but after hearing someone’s review on TikTok, I knew I had to check it out. The story line was very good and relatable; the characters and personalities kept you engaged. I hope they do another audio book this was very good!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Enjoyed the style and storyline

I enjoyed this short audiobook.
The style and storyline were great.

I hope more are produced.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great Pacing and Tech World as a Background Setting

Overall enjoyed the story. The pace was done well. It’s a great listen when you want/need story time but don’t want to take a full quarter to finish.

Some notes; I think the chemistry with Suitor A should have been the one explored. Suitor B was on work-mode and curious about MC. Suitor B didn’t engage with MC enough to go from work partners for 4-weeks to exchanging 😍. He also didn’t choose MC. It fell into place for him. That part could have been save for a TBC.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great short story

Enjoyed how it kept my attention, how it all unfolded, and the ending was sweet

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Ambition

I thought the story was well written. I believe the story was about a woman who was trying to do the best she ever could for her child and for herself the typical black woman story.

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