As a 23-year-old up-and-coming actress, Aliza Kate Barlow was simply excited to get work when a friend introduced her to an emerging industry: microdramas . “He was like, ‘You would be perfect for it, you’re white,’” she told TheWrap about the medium’s embrace of broad archetypes. “It’s a thing in the verticals — they love their white, blonde lead girls.” It’s a glib assessment that speaks to the formulaic nature of these shows. U.S. microdramas, also known as vertical dramas, predominantly