 |
| Where Was Netflix’s Doing Life Filmed? All Filming Locations Revealed. |
Netflix’s Doing Life was filmed entirely in Georgia, with production centred on Atlanta and Tattnall County. Tyler Perry’s drama moves between the lives of Anika, a single mother trying to get back on her feet, and Carousel, an ex-convict attempting to rebuild his future, so the production needed locations that could shift from everyday city life to prison drama without making the two worlds feel disconnected. Principal photography took place around March 2025, with Atlanta providing most of the production infrastructure and Tattnall County supplying the prison setting.
Atlanta, Georgia, was the main filming base for Doing Life, and the city appears in several different forms throughout the film. The production made use of locations across Atlanta, including the historic Castleberry Hill district, a neighbourhood southwest of Downtown known for its converted industrial buildings, galleries, restaurants and creative spaces. It is the sort of part of Atlanta that can look polished and gritty within the same few streets, which is rather handy when a film needs atmosphere without building an entire city from scratch.
One of the more recognisable Atlanta locations is the Plaza Theatre at 1049 Ponce de Leon Avenue, where the movie date involving Anika and Carousel was filmed. The historic cinema provides a particularly distinctive backdrop, with its Art Deco architecture and old-fashioned marquee giving the sequence a strong sense of place. During production, the familiar “Plaza” sign was changed to “Tavern” for the movie, proving once again that apparently even cinemas occasionally need a career change when Hollywood comes calling.
Much of Doing Life, however, was filmed at Tyler Perry Studios at One Tyler Perry Studio Way in Atlanta. Built on the former Fort McPherson Army Base, the sprawling 330-acre complex gives productions room to create everything from residential streets to institutional interiors without constantly moving the entire cast and crew around Georgia. With 12 sound stages, extensive production facilities and a large backlot, it was a natural base for Perry's latest directorial project.
For Doing Life, Tyler Perry Studios effectively becomes a production world of its own. The movie's different environments, including locations connected to Anika and Carousel's lives, could be created and controlled within the studio complex.
That flexibility matters for a story that jumps between personal drama and the harsher circumstances surrounding Carousel's past. It also saves the crew from spending half the day stuck in traffic while carrying an impressive amount of film equipment around Atlanta, which is probably a small victory in itself.
The production then moved southeast to Tattnall County, Georgia, where the story's prison material was filmed. The area provided a much different setting from Atlanta, allowing the production to move away from the city's urban surroundings and into a location suited to Carousel's incarceration.
The key Tattnall County location was Georgia State Prison at 300 1st Avenue South in Reidsville. The real prison was transformed for the production and used to portray the fictional Holloway State Correctional Facility, where Carousel is serving his sentence. Rather than relying entirely on a constructed prison set, filming at an actual correctional facility gives those scenes a more grounded physical environment, particularly when the story depends on the contrast between Carousel's confined past and his attempt to build a different future.
Reidsville itself also brings a different visual character to Doing Life. Compared with Atlanta's dense urban backdrop, the Tattnall County setting gives the prison sequences a more isolated feel. That contrast works neatly for a story built around two people trying to find a way forward while carrying very different circumstances with them.
The choice of Georgia makes sense for the production as a whole. Atlanta offers major studio facilities and a huge variety of urban environments, while Tattnall County supplies a very different landscape and the prison setting required for Carousel's storyline. Doing Life therefore gets plenty of mileage from one state without having to pretend that every location is the same place. Atlanta handles the production-heavy side of the movie, while Reidsville provides the harder-edged setting needed for its prison scenes.
There is also something fitting about the contrast between the locations. The Plaza Theatre gives Anika and Carousel a recognisable public setting for a quieter moment, Castleberry Hill adds Atlanta's urban texture, Tyler Perry Studios provides the controlled environments needed for much of the production, and Georgia State Prison supplies the physical reality of Carousel's past. The locations aren't simply pretty backgrounds; they help separate the different stages of the characters' lives.
My take? Doing Life sounds like the kind of Tyler Perry production where Georgia does a surprising amount of the heavy lifting. Atlanta supplies the polished studio machinery, the historic streets and a classic cinema, while Reidsville brings the prison setting that gives Carousel's story its weight.
The Plaza Theatre is probably the location most likely to catch the eye because it already looks like a movie location before a camera even arrives. Tyler Perry Studios is the practical powerhouse behind the production, though, and Georgia State Prison gives the film its most stark change of scenery. The whole combination is quite efficient: one state, several distinct worlds, and considerably less geographical gymnastics than some productions put themselves through.
So, if Doing Life has you curious about its Georgia locations, Atlanta and Reidsville are the two places at the heart of the production. From the historic streets of Castleberry Hill and the Plaza Theatre to Tyler Perry Studios and Georgia State Prison, each setting brings something different to the film. Which Doing Life filming location would you most like to visit, and would you choose the old-school Plaza Theatre, the Tyler Perry Studios lot or the Reidsville setting? Let us know what you think.