Television series
grown-ish
grown-ish takes Zoey Johnson off the family sitcom clock and drops her into college, where the black-ish wit stays but the stakes get sharper—money, addiction, consent, who you're becoming. It's still a hangout comedy with big laughs and a killer ensemble, but it's willing to sit in discomfort longer than its parent show ever did. Good for anyone who wants their coming-of-age comedy with actual consequences.
If you liked this
black-ish2014
The mothership. Watch it first and you'll understand exactly how much of Zoey's family shaped her, and you'll get sharper, funnier context for every callback and cameo.
But It's a different show entirely—family sitcom, not campus comedy—so if you came for college chaos, you'll be waiting.
Insecure2016
Issa Rae's HBO comedy has the same gift for turning friendship, ambition and romantic disaster into something both hilarious and quietly devastating—grown-ish's older, wearier cousin.
But It's slower and more melancholic, set well past graduation, with less campus chaos and more grown-up dread creeping in.
Dear White People2017
Same college-satire engine, turned up louder: sharper politics, bolder formal experiments, and a cast every bit as good at delivering punchlines as it is delivering real pain.
But More overtly political and stylistically experimental—expect essay-style narration and pointed social commentary, not easy hangout vibes.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
A Different World1987
It's the direct ancestor: a Cosby Show spinoff that sent the family's eldest daughter off to a historically Black college, doing exactly what grown-ish does for Zoey—decades before streaming made it fashionable.
Watch the blueprint. Denise Huxtable's HBCU years tackled apartheid, AIDS, and campus politics with real teeth, proving the format could carry weight even in the Reagan era.
But The pacing and production are pure late-80s network sitcom—laugh track, broad staging, none of grown-ish's visual polish.
More like this (8)
Never Have I Ever2020
Mindy Kaling's coming-of-age comedy has the same warmth and joke density, just aimed at high school instead of college, with grief threaded through the laughs.
But Younger cast, younger problems—if you specifically want campus stakes, this skews teenage rather than early-adult territory.
The Bold Type2017
Freeform's other great young-women ensemble, tracking three friends navigating careers, identity, sex and love with the same big-hearted, occasionally preachy optimism that grown-ish trades in.
But It's glossier and more aspirational, set in magazine-world New York—less lived-in mess, more polished millennial fantasy.
Sex Education2019
British, filthier, and structurally similar—an ensemble of students figuring out sex, identity, and family baggage, all handled with real tenderness underneath all the constant raunch.
But It's set in secondary school, not college, and the tone swings broader and more farcical at times.
Superstore2015
Trade the quad for a big-box store and you get the same trick: a scrappy ensemble comedy that sneaks real economic and social bite into the jokes.
But No campus setting at all, and the cast is older—this is workplace comedy, not coming-of-age.
Community2009
The classic college-ensemble comedy, weirder and far more formally inventive, proving that campus misfits have been prime sitcom material for well over a decade now.
But Community college, not a four-year university, and the humor leans absurdist rather than grounded in real-world stakes.
Awkward.2011no page yet
An earlier, scrappier MTV take on the same idea—a diary-narrated dramedy about surviving your own mistakes as a teenager, blunt about sex and identity before it was common.
But It's high school, lower-budget, and shows its early-2010s age in ways grown-ish's slicker production never will.
Big Mouth2017
Same raw material—sex, shame, addiction, figuring out who you are—rendered as gross-out animated comedy instead of live-action dramedy, proving the growing-up story survives any costume you put it in.
It's grown-ish's anxieties about bodies, sex and identity taken to their most literal, hormone-monster extreme—filthy, fearless, and surprisingly emotionally accurate about adolescent panic underneath the gross-out jokes.
But Animated, cruder, and aimed at puberty rather than college—the raunch is cartoonish and constant, which not everyone wants.
Higher Learning1995no page yet
The same college campus, the same questions about race and belonging that Aaron's activism only touches on—played here as a tense ensemble drama instead of a comedy, showing how much heavier this setting can get.
John Singleton's ensemble drama walks the same quad grown-ish does, but strips out the jokes to show how fast campus tension can curdle into real violence.
But It's a heavy, often bleak 90s drama with none of grown-ish's warmth or humor—go in ready for that tonal whiplash.
People
Cast
Writing
- Kenya BarrisCreator
- Larry WilmoreCreator