Hulu has canceled the critically acclaimed comedy series How To Die Alone after just one season, reported Variety on Tuesday, Feb. 4.
The series, created by and starring Natasha Rothwell, featured The White Lotus actress as Mel, “a broke, fat, Black JFK Airport employee who’s never been in love and forgotten how to dream, until an accidental brush with death catapults her on a journey to finally take flight and start living by any means necessary.”
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Conrad Ricamora, Jocko Sims and KeiLyn Durrel Jones also starred in the series, which hailed from Onyx Collective, a content brand owned by Disney Entertainment primarily working with creators of color and other underrepresented groups. How to Die Alone received its series order in November 2022 and it was released on Hulu in September 2024.

A source close to the studio told Variety that viewership wasn’t strong enough to greenlight a second season, but Rothwell said in a statement that she was “shocked, heartbroken and frankly, baffled” that Onyx would cancel the show, which won the Independent Spirit Award for ensemble cast in a new scripted series and has three pending nominations for NAACP Image Awards.
“I am shocked, heartbroken, and frankly, baffled that Onyx has decided not to move forward with a second season of How to Die Alone,” Rothwell said in a statement to Variety. “This is a tough reality to accept because the show is an undeniable critical, creative, and award-winning success.”
Rothwell also plans to search for a new home for the series. “This show took me eight years to bring to life, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned in that time, it’s resilience,” she continued. “I’m not giving up. My team and I are committed to finding How to Die Alone a new home because stories like this matter.”
She went on, “Now more than ever, television that amplifies previously unheard voices, and that prioritizes hiring and casting decisions that accurately reflect the diversity of the world is essential. Representation isn’t just about visibility—it’s about ensuring that our stories, our existence, and our cultural contributions are not erased.”
Rothwell concluded with a quote from Maya Angelou: “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it,” adding as a final statement, “We are rising. And we are not done.”