Issa Rae

Issa Rae

Rae in 2011
Born January 12, 1985 (age 31)
Alma mater Stanford University
New York Film Academy
Occupation Director, writer, actor, web series creator, producer
Known for Awkward Black Girl

Issa Rae (born January 12, 1985) is an American actress and writer. She is best known as the creator of the YouTube web series Awkward Black Girl.[1] Since the premiere of Awkward Black Girl, Rae has developed her own YouTube platform where she features various content created by people of color.[2][3]

Rae's shows have garnered over 20 million views and over 200,000 subscribers on YouTube.[4]

Early Life

As a child, Rae lived in Potomac, Maryland, where she grew up with "things that aren't considered 'black,' like the swim team and street hockey and Passover dinners with Jewish best friends."[5] When she was in sixth grade, her family moved to Los Angeles and enrolled her in a predominantly black middle school where she was “berated for ‘acting white'" and initially found it difficult to "fit into this ‘blackness’ I was supposed to be."[6]

Rae attended Stanford University and graduated in 2007. As a college student, she made music videos, wrote and directed plays, and created a mock reality series called Dorm Diaries for fun. At Stanford University, Rae met Tracy Oliver, who helped produce Awkward Black Girl and starred on the show as Nina. The two started taking classes together at the New York Film Academy.[7]

After graduation, Rae worked odd jobs and at one point was struggling to decide between business school and law school, but abandoned both ideas when Awkward Black Girl started taking off in 2011.[8]

Career

Awkward Black Girl

Main article: Awkward Black Girl

Rae's web series Awkward Black Girl premiered on YouTube in 2011. The show follows the life of J (played by Rae) as she interacts with co-workers and love interests who place her in uncomfortable situations. The story is told through first-person narrative as J usually reveals how she feels about her circumstances through voice-over or dream sequence.

The series eventually went viral through word of mouth, blog posts, and social media, resulting in mainstream media coverage and attention.[9][10][11] In an effort to fund the rest of the first season, Issa Rae and producer Tracy Oliver decided to raise money for the series through Kickstarter. On August 11, 2011 they were awarded $56,269 from 1,960 donations and released the rest of season one on Rae's YouTube channel.[12]

Rae eventually partnered up with Pharrell and premiered season two of the series on his YouTube channel, iamOTHER.[13] Rae also began releasing other content on her original channel, predominantly created by and starring people of color.

In 2013, Awkward Black Girl won a Shorty award for Best Web Show.

Rae created Awkward Black Girl because she felt the Hollywood stereotypes of African-American women were limiting and she could not relate to them:

I felt like my voice was missing, and the voices of other people that I really respect and admire and wanna see in the mainstream are missing.[8]

By using YouTube as her forum, Rae was able to have autonomy of her work since she writes, films, produces, and edits all of her work. Rae's other shows—Ratchet Piece Theater, The "F" Word, Roomieloverfriends, and The Choir, among others—also focus on African-American experiences that are often not portrayed in the mainstream media.

Rae has been interviewed by various high profile media outlets to discuss the show, including The New York Times in 2015.[14]

Insecure

In 2013, she began working on a comedy series pilot with Larry Wilmore about the awkward experiences of a contemporary African-American woman, in which she will be starring, eventually titled Insecure.[15] HBO picked up the pilot in early 2015 and it was subsequently greenlit, scheduled for a 2016 release.[16]

Personal life

In 2012, Rae was included on the annual Forbes '30 Under 30' list in the entertainment section.[17]

Rae is currently signed with United Talent Agency and 3 Arts Entertainment.

References

  1. ↑ Gopalan, Nisha. "Issa Rae on Awkward Black Girl, Her Shonda Rhimes Show, and Hating L.A. Guys". Vulture.com. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  2. ↑ Kang, Inkoo. "Issa Rae's Long Road: When Are We Finally Going to Stop Wondering if Women of Color Are "Relatable"?". Women and Hollywood. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  3. ↑ "Issa Rae’s Color Creative Calls for TV Diversity". EBONY. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  4. ↑ "Issa Rae". YouTube. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  5. ↑ Hua, Vanessa (May 2012). "Awkward Stage". Stanford Magazine. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  6. ↑ Crossley, Hilary (July 26, 2011). "5 Questions for Issa Rae on 'Awkward Black Girl'". Essence. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  7. ↑ Hua, Vanessa (May 2012). "Awkward Stage". Stanford Magazine. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  8. 1 2 Gray, Emma (November 5, 2013). "Issa Rae, Creator Of 'Awkward Black Girl', Felt Like Her Voice Was Missing From Pop Culture -- So Here's What She Did". The Huffington Post. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  9. ↑ http://www.cnn.com/videos/living/2011/10/08/whitfield-issa-rae-interview.cnn?iref=allsearch. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ↑ http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=APAB&p_theme=apab&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=issa%20rae&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=(%22issa%20rae%22)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. ↑ http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2011/07/awkward_black_girl_interview_issa_rae_talks_to_the_root.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. ↑ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1996857943/the-misadventures-of-awkward-black-girl/posts/106068?ref=email&show_token=30c3f7fc3079b13c. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. ↑ http://www.pinkisthenewblog.com/2012-06-15/pharrell-williams-teams-up-with-awkward-black-girl-launches-new-brand. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. ↑ Wortham, Jenna (2015-08-04). "The Misadventures of Issa Rae". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-01-09.
  15. ↑ "Issa Rae & Larry Wilmore To Create 'Non-Prophet' For HBO". vibe.com. August 6, 2013. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  16. ↑ "Issa Rae Comedy 'Insecure' Gets HBO Series Order". Deadline. Retrieved 2016-01-09.
  17. ↑ "Forbes Welcome". www.forbes.com. Retrieved 2016-01-09.

External links

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