The Phenomenal Fantasia Joins New NBCU Music Series Chasing The Dream As A Mentor

The phenomenal singer/actor, Fantasia joins a host of other well-known and celebrated performers who have signed on to mentor young creatives from underserved communities, on a new NBCUniversal music series, Chasing the Dream.

Created by writer-director Monica Kelley, a 25-year veteran of the industry, the series will premiere as a summer replacement on NBCU, on Saturday, July 8th, with all other episodes airing every Sunday beginning on July 9th- August 27th on NBCU, LX, and livestream on Peacock as well as other streaming platforms.

Chasing the Dream is a performance-based docu-series designed to mentor emerging talent who have had little to no access to specialized training or professional opportunities but have real raw talent. This is not a reality competition show, it is an opportunity to give back and really change lives.

Each week, the show will search all over the country to track down some amazing, undiscovered talent, with incredible stories, and connect one lucky person to an iconic mentor, for an unimaginable opportunity to chase their dream! At the end of each week's episode, Dream Chasers (mentee) will do a live performance in New York City.

The show has attracted a diverse group of industry personalities, with more showing interest. In addition to Fantasia, the list celebrity mentors include:

Gospel superstar Kirk Franklin

Songwriter/rapper/producer Jermaine Dupri

R&B artist and radio personality, Miss Jones (Tarsha Nicole Jones)

Country pop recording artist Walker Hayes

Country Music singer/songwriter Lauren Alaina

Rapper/producer/entrepreneur Fat Joe

iHeart Radio personality & winner of season 27 of Dancing with the Stars, Bobby Bones

As well as celebrated Ukrainian DANCING WITH THE STARS dancer-choreographer, Maksim Chmerkovskiy

And Singer/Songwriter, Jake Owen

Chasing the Dream has also attracted one of the country's top multinational brands as a sponsor - JPMorgan Chase, a leading financial services firm that serves 78 million consumers and more than 5 million small businesses in the United States. As part of their sponsorship, Chase will participate in two segments, providing show mentees with tailored financial advice and insights to help them market, grow and sustain their business. Chase will also help them understand how they can build and maintain a healthy credit score using tools like Chase Credit Journey-a free credit monitoring digital tool-to help maintain good financial health and achieve their financial goals.

What makes this show so different from other shows? No one loses!

At the end of each week's episode of Chasing the Dream, every mentee will receives a gift that will actually improve their lives! This is not a hand-out, but a hand-up, and these mentees will be provided with real help.

The launch episode of CHASING THE DREAM will air on NBCU and LX beginning on Saturday, July 9th, and thereafter, on Sundays at 8 pm starting on July 9 - August 27th. It will also stream nationwide on the following platforms: Peacock, Hulu, Apple TV, Roku, YouTube TV, FuboTV, and Samsung TV Plus, which gives this series a footprint of 158MM.