Vertical drama is no longer just a mobile entertainment novelty. In less than a few years, the format has grown from a fast-moving app-based experiment into a multilingual production model, with platforms such as ReelShort testing how romance, fantasy, revenge, hidden identity, and melodrama can travel across regions and screens.
One clear sign of this growth is not only the number of views these series receive, but also how quickly they travel across languages and regions. ReelShort’s multilingual circulation now includes some of its most visible titles, including Breaking the Ice, True Luna, and The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband, all of which were recognized by Backstage in its feature, “Scroll-Stopping Drama: The 8 Best Vertical Series Worth Watching.” That these already-noted vertical dramas are now traveling across language markets points to the format’s growing visibility beyond its original mobile-app audience.
Leomax He, also known by his formal name Ziyuan He, represents one example of this early production generation. As one of ReelShort’s early U.S.-based directors, He directed True Luna and several other titles that have since entered Arabic and broader multilingual circulation. One of these Arabic-released series starred Marc Trottier, an actor known for appearing as Hardhat in The CW’s Arrow. His involvement suggests how U.S.-produced mini dramas often drew from the broader North American acting and production ecosystem, rather than developing entirely outside it.
In this sense, He’s career offers a useful example of how a new generation of filmmakers is moving between authorship and mobile-first entertainment. That movement has become especially visible through vertical drama’s multilingual reach, where stories must communicate quickly across cultures and viewing habits.
The first ReelShort series directed by Leomax He, Never Divorce a Secret Billionaire Heiress, became an online hit shortly after its release and was later mentioned by The Economist. To date, the series has been released in more than 14 languages, reaching audiences across multiple national and regional markets.
He entered this space in early 2023, at a time when the vertical drama industry in the United States was still taking shape. Around that period, he met Sunyin Zhang, now Head of Studio at ReelShort, who served as producer on Never Divorce a Secret Billionaire Heiress and brought He on to direct the series. The experience placed him among the early directors working within ReelShort’s U.S. production ecosystem, before vertical drama had fully established its own industrial grammar. The series reached 98.3 million views, demonstrating the power of short-form serialized drama to generate rapid audience engagement.
Yet his connection to vertical storytelling began before his work with ReelShort. In 2021, He won Second Prize at Nespresso Talents for a 16:9 vertical narrative short film, an early recognition that linked his independent filmmaking practice with the possibilities of mobile-oriented screen language.
“What intrigued me about vertical drama was that it felt like a new way to channel my creative energy,” said He, who is currently directing ReelShort’s recent fantasy comedy She’s Not Homeless, She’s a Healer Goddess!. “It reminds me a lot of making B-movies. The ideas can be wild and imaginative, and when we take bold creative risks, we get audience feedback almost right away.”
Over the past three years, vertical drama has become more structured and professionalized. What was once treated as a novelty — short episodes, vertical framing, fast hooks, and heightened emotional turns — has developed into a recognizable storytelling system. As He suggested, one of vertical drama’s defining features is the speed with which creative risks can be tested. Because audience feedback arrives almost immediately, directors and platforms are able to refine hooks, performances, genres, and story structures in a short time. His work within ReelShort reflects this larger shift: from early mobile experiments built around fast emotional engagement to a more expansive platform strategy shaped by multilingual circulation, genre adaptation, and cross-platform storytelling.
ReelShort has reflected this openness through projects such as Fatal Temptation: Between Two Alphas, a cross-media drama launched across gaming, fiction, and platforms; Dear Evil Stepsisters, the Prince Is Mine, a branded collaboration with Monopoly GO!. The platform has also continued to adapt popular fiction into mobile-first dramas, from the previously mentioned True Luna, adapted from Tessa Lilly’s True Luna: Rejected By My Mate, to the more recent Head Witch in Charge, adapted from Avery Flynn’s USA Today bestselling novel of the same name.
As vertical drama travels into Arabic and other language markets, its growth is no longer defined only by translation. It is being reshaped through genre, performance, platform strategy, and the viewing habits of new audiences.
RS MENA staff were not involved in the creation of this content.
