Issa Rae is best known as the creator of the YouTube web series Awkward Black Girl. Since the premiere of Awkward Black Girl, Rae has developed her own YouTube platform where she features various content created by people of color. Rae shows have garnered over 20 million views and over 260,000 subscribers on YouTube.
Issa Rae partners with CoverGirl
Insecure star Issa Rae is bringing her Awkward Black Girl magic to CoverGirl with her new lip collection.
As of October 2016, Rae is the creator, co-writer and star of the HBO series Insecure, which is partially based on Awkward Black Girl.
Other names Joissa Diop
Alma mater Stanford University (2007)
Occupation Director, writer, actress, producer, web series creator
Years active 2011–present
Known for Awkward Black Girl, Insecure
Website issarae.com
Age: 38 years old and 4 months
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Height 5 ft 8 in or 173 cm
Body Measurements: 33-24-33 inches
Bra Size: 33A
Hair Color: Black/ Dark Brown
Eye Color: Black
Issa Rae Family
Father: Dr. Abdoulaye Diop
Mother: Delyna Diop
Siblings: She has four siblings
Early life
Rae was born in Los Angeles, California. Her father, Dr. Abdoulaye Diop, is a pediatric doctor from Senegal, and her mother, Delyna Diop (nee Hayward), is a teacher from Louisiana. Rae parents met in France, when they were both in school. She has four siblings. The family lived in Dakar, Senegal for a short period during her childhood. Her father has a medical practice in Inglewood, California.
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. When she was in sixth grade, her family moved to the affluent View Park-Windsor Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles where she attended a predominantly black middle school where Rae said she was berated for ‘acting white’ and initially found it difficult to fit into this ‘blackness’ I was supposed to be. Rae graduated from King Drew Magnet High School of Medicine and Science, where she started acting. Her parents divorced when she was in high school.
In 2007, Rae graduated from Stanford University with a major in African and African-American Studies and then studied at the New York Film Academy. 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, Rae met Tracy Oliver, who helped produce Awkward Black Girl and starred on the show as Nina.
After college, Rae received a theater fellowship at The Public Theater in New York City. Oliver and Rae started taking classes together at the New York Film Academy. 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.
Career
The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl
Main article: Awkward Black Girl
Rae web series The Misadventures of 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. 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 YouTube channel.
Rae eventually partnered up with Pharrell and premiered season two of the series on his YouTube channel, iamOTHER. 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’ve always had an issue with the assumption that people of color, and Black people especially, aren’t relatable. I know we are.
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 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.
Insecure
Main article: Insecure (TV series)
In 2013, she began working on a comedy series pilot with Larry Wilmore, who in addition to being an actor has a long history of producing and writing television. The show would be about the awkward experiences of a contemporary African-American woman, in which Issa Rae would star, which was eventually titled Insecure. HBO picked up the pilot in early 2015 and it was subsequently greenlit, scheduled for a fall 2016 release. It was given a second season by HBO, debuting in July 2017.
Writing
The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, Issa Rae New York Times best selling memoir hit the shelves February 2015. She chronicles her life through a series of humorous anecdotes. She opens up about her personal struggle with not fitting in, and not being considered black enough at times.
Personal life
Rae birth name, Jo-Issa, comes from a combination of the names of her grandmothers: Joyce and Isseu. Her middle name, Rae, is after an aunt, who was an artist.
In 2012, Rae was included on the annual Forbes ’30 Under 30′ list in the entertainment section. Rae is currently signed with United Talent Agency and 3 Arts Entertainment.
In media
Rae appeared on the cover of Essence magazine May 2015 Game Changers issue, alongside Shonda Rhimes, Ava DuVernay, Debbie Allen, and Mara Brock Akil. Rae expressed her desire for more people of color working in production behind the scenes to make a lasting impact in the television industry.
Filmography
2011–2013: The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl (TV series short) — Actor, 24 episodes; Director; Writer, 1 episode: The Sleepover (2012); Producer, 1 episode: The Check (2013)
2012: M.O. Diaries (TV series) — Executive Producer
2012: The Couple (TV series) — Actor, 1 episode: Exes and Texts as Lisa
2012–2013: The Number (TV series short) — Actor, 6 episodes as Lisa
2013: How Men Become Dogs (TV series) — Executive Producer, 9 episodes
2013: True Friendship Society (TV series) — Actor, 1 episode: Pilot Part Two as Mama Moth
2013: My Roommate the (TV series) — Actor, 1 episode: Awkward Black Girl as J
2013: Instacurity (TV series) — Actor, 1 episode: The Birthday Party as Issa
2013: Pharrell Williams: Happy (Video short) — Dancer
2013: Little Horribles (TV series) — Executive Producer, 3 episodes; Actor, 1 episode: Sexual Activity as Best Friend
2013-2015: The Choir (TV series) — Executive Producer, 12 episodes; Director, 2 episodes: Genesis and New Blood; Writer, 12 episodes
2013: Inside Web Series (TV series documentary) — Executive Producer, 6 episodes
2013: Black Actress (TV series) — Producer
2013–2014: Roomieloverfriends (TV series) — Executive Producer, 4 episodes
2014: Hard Times (Video short) — Executive Producer
2014: So Jaded (TV movie) — Executive Producer
2014: Words with Girls (TV movie) — Executive Producer
2014: Bleach (TV movie) — Executive Producer
2014: Head Cases (TV series) — Executive Producer
2014: Black Twitter Screening (Short) — Writer
2014: Rubberhead (TV movie) — Actor, Segment: Absorption as Bride 2
2014: Protect and Serve (Short) — Executive Producer; Actor as Police Recruit
2014: A Bitter Lime—Actor as Jane Johnson
2014–2015: First (TV series) — Co-Executive Producer, 10 episodes; Co-Producer, 1 episodes
2015: Killing Lazarus—Producer
2015: Get Your Life (TV series) — Executive Producer
2016–present: Insecure (TV series) — Executive Producer, Writer, Actor, 16 episodes
2018: The Hate U Give
Works and publications[edit]
Rae, Issa (2015). The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl
2018
Nominee
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Insecure
Received the Vanguard Award at the 10th annual Essence Black Women In Hollywood event, February, 2017.
She abandoned all thoughts of going to business school or law school when the web series that she produced at Stanford with her friend Tracy Oliver, Awkward Black Girl, started taking off in 2011. In 2013, it won a Shorty award for Best Web Show.
As of 2016, Rae is the creator, co-writer and star of the series Insecure, which is partially based on Awkward Black Girl.
Facts
Her father is a pediatric doctor from Senegal while her mother is a teacher from Louisiana.
Issao parents divorced when she was in high school.
Her birth name, Jo-Issa, comes from a combination of the names of her grandmothers: Joyce and Isseu.
She was included on the annual Forbes “30 Under 30” list in the entertainment section.
She has also written a book named “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl”.
Issa Rae Net Worth is estimated to be around $3 million.
