There is a particular kind of brave it takes to fly to another country to surprise someone you love. Imani has that kind of brave. In the first minutes of Surprise! I Love You, the new Jamaican romantic comedy from The LAB Studios, she lands in Jamaica with a plan: surprise the man she thinks could be the one. The plan does not survive the airport. What survives is a funny, warm, and very Jamaican story about heartbreak, fresh starts, and finding love where you least expect it.
That is all you are getting on plot, because this is the rare film best watched cold. But the setup alone tells you everything about why this movie matters. For once, Jamaica is not the backdrop for somebody else’s love story. It is the love story.
The film
Surprise! I Love You premiered September 20, 2026 as a full-length feature, free on YouTube through The LAB Studios channel. It is written by Joleen Tomlinson and Jesane “Marz” Jackson, from a story by Daniel Uzodinma, directed by Jackson, and executive produced by Kimala Bennett. Nadia Adelay plays Imani, the romantic who takes the leap. Derrick Levy plays Malik, the calm and grounded presence at the center of the friend group. They are joined by Damel Spooner as Sean, Andre Skeen as Marvin, Tiffany Silver as Desi, and Shanice Morrison as Tasha, the standards-setter who knows exactly what she wants.
The film blends rom-com beats with relationship drama and a full dose of Jamaican island energy: the humor, the music, the scenery, the way a friend group becomes family when your plans fall apart. If you have ever been the person who had it all figured out until Jamaica had other plans, you will feel seen.
It is also part of a bigger run from The LAB Studios, the same team behind the rom-com Happily Ever Awkward and the legal drama Jenna in Law. They are building a library of original Jamaican movies and series made for audiences at home and around the world, and releasing them where the diaspora actually watches: online, free, no gatekeepers.
Why this fills a real gap
Jamaica has been on screen plenty, but usually as scenery. How Stella Got Her Groove Back sent its American heroine to the island to find herself. Countless productions have treated Jamaica as a pretty background for someone else’s story, or worse, as shorthand for violence and ganja. Writer Joleen Tomlinson told Jamaicans.com exactly why she made this film: “I want to see every kind of Jamaican story on screen, because we are such a unique little place with big, incredible stories. It just so happens that there was a noticeable gap when it comes to movies that live strictly within the romance and comedy worlds.”
She is not alone in that feeling. Oscar-nominated actor Delroy Lindo, who is of Jamaican heritage, has spoken about wanting screen stories that move past familiar portrayals centered on violence and ganja, toward “a very, very different presentation” of the country. Jamaican stories are having a moment across genres right now: crime noir, historical drama, migration stories, faith, folklore, the supernatural. Donisha Prendergast’s Threads of Us brought romance together with themes of injustice and resilience. Surprise! I Love You adds the missing piece: a story where romance and comedy get to be the whole point, where Black love from a Jamaican lens is treated as worthy of the big romantic gesture.
Why more of this is good for the diaspora
Here is the part that matters for us in Canada. A film like this does more than entertain for two hours. It pays dividends back to the community in ways that are worth spelling out.
It keeps the connection to home alive. For first-generation immigrants, a Jamaican rom-com is a taste of the humor, the speech, and the social world they grew up in. For second-generation kids in Brampton or Scarborough who have never lived on the island, it is a window into the culture that is half of who they are, delivered in a language they actually speak: movies, not lectures.
It changes what the world thinks Jamaica is. Every romantic comedy, drama, and thriller made by Jamaicans and set in Jamaica chips away at the single story the world has been told. The diaspora benefits directly when the island’s global image is bigger than the stereotypes, because we carry that image with us everywhere we go.
It builds a real industry at home. A film like this employs dozens of Jamaican creatives: writers, directors, camera operators, costume designers, makeup artists, sound mixers, production assistants, and the interns learning the craft on set. The credits on Surprise! I Love You run long, and every name on that list is someone building a career in Jamaica’s creative economy instead of leaving to find one. When the diaspora watches, shares, and subscribes, we are literally funding the next production. Free on YouTube does not mean free to make.
It proves our stories sell without trauma. For years the unspoken rule was that Caribbean stories had to be about struggle to get taken seriously. A feel-good Jamaican rom-com thriving on a global platform blows that rule up. Joy is a legitimate subject. Our love stories deserve the same glossy treatment Hollywood gives everyone else’s.
It is made for how we actually watch. No cinema release to miss, no streaming subscription required, no waiting months for it to reach Canada. It premiered on YouTube and the diaspora in Toronto watched it the same day as the audience in Kingston. That digital-first model is quietly revolutionary for Caribbean cinema, and it only works if we show up in the view counts.
Watch it, share it, ask for more
Surprise! I Love You is out now on The LAB Studios YouTube channel, free, full length, spoiler-free guarantee intact if you stop reading here and press play. Go in knowing only this: a woman flies to Jamaica for love, the plan falls apart, and what happens next is funnier and more heartfelt than she bargained for.
Then do the part that matters. Watch it all the way through, because completion rates are what platforms notice. Share it in the family group chat. Leave a comment. Subscribe to the channel. The fastest way to get more Jamaican films is to make this one impossible to ignore. The diaspora has always been Jamaica’s biggest audience and its loudest amplifier. Time to act like it.
The details
- Title:Surprise! I Love You
- Studio: The LAB Studios
- Premiere: September 20, 2026, on YouTube
- Cast: Nadia Adelay (Imani), Derrick Levy (Malik), Damel Spooner (Sean), Andre Skeen (Marvin), Tiffany Silver (Desi), Shanice Morrison (Tasha), Rosemary Murray-Tingling (Sandra), Madison Francois (Kimmy), Marcellus Allen (Uncle Rory)
- Crew: Executive Producer Kimala Bennett; Writers Joleen Tomlinson and Jesane “Marz” Jackson; Story by Daniel Uzodinma; Director Jesane “Marz” Jackson; Producer Tashara-Lee Johnson
- Watch: free on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdfmwX2vlpM
Sources
- The LAB Studios, official film page and credits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdfmwX2vlpM
- World Music Views, “Surprise! I Love You: New Jamaica Romantic Comedy Premieres September 20”: https://worldmusicviews.com/surprise-i-love-you-new-jamaica-romantic-comedy-premieres-september-20/
- Jamaicans.com, “A Jamaican Rom-Com Set in Jamaica? Why Not?”: https://jamaicans.com/a-jamaican-rom-com-set-in-jamaica-why-not/
- The LAB Studios behind-the-scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbE8Rjt3Vi0
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