Jo-Issa Rae Diop was
Cause I'm feeling sorry for myself.
A Los Angeles born “halfrican,” as she affectionately refers to
the mixture of her mother’s Louisiana roots and her
father’s Senegalese heritage,
Jo-Issa and her 4 siblings spent their formative years
changing schools every two years as her family
zig-zagged around the globe.
From LA to Maryland, back to LA to Senegal
and finally settling in LA again.
Her blackness either isolated her amongst
her white classmates in private school
or wasn’t pronounced enough to satisfy her black classmates in public school.
She turned to TV characters such as Vanessa from ‘The Cosby Show,’
Freddie on ‘A Different World,’
and Laura on ‘Family Matters’
for representations of herself in a world that
didn’t seem to welcome her dry humor, proper speech and
Her father, a pediatrician, was eager for his middle child
to follow in his footsteps.
Her parents even enrolled her in
South LA’s King/Drew Magnet High School
of Medicine and Science.
Her experience on King/Drew’s largely black and latinx campus
gave her what she describes as a
and its drama department provided her with an outlet
to explore her blossoming interest in TV and film.
She’d need to remember that spark of passion when
in the entertainment industry bucks her into a pothole.
Jo-Issa didn’t want to be a doctor,
but her father wasn’t giving up hope on his daughter
pursuing a “real” career.
When he found out she would be pursuing African American
studies at Stanford University instead of political science,
he said she might as well have majored in flowers.
It turns out he wasn’t far off.
In 2006, the widespread success of her webseries ‘Dorm Diaries,’
a low-budget, ‘Real World’ style show about campus life,
brought the realization that she had
into full bloom.
It was around this time that a friend randomly blessed her with the nickname
that the world would come to know her by.
'And my friend just randomly called me that nickname on Facebook.
She was like, 'Oh hey, Issa Rae.' And I was like, 'What? Nobody calls me that.'
But I was like, 'Oh, I love that!'
She carried that moniker to NYC, where she pursued an internship at the Public Theater,
founded a nonprofit called the Black Film Academy,
and began drafting a pitch to bring ‘Dorm Diaries’ to MTV or BET.
In a cruel turn of fate, her Washington Heights apartment was burglarized
and the thieves made off with $10,000 worth of film and editing equipment.
Having all of her things stolen was a setback that would ultimately propel her forward.
Issa was forced into self-reflection and emerged with an epiphany:
‘The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl’ premiered in February of 2011 on YouTube,
and won that year’s Shorty Award for Best Webshow.
Issa had hundreds of thousands of subscribers, over a million viewers, and ABG’s popularity was increasing by the day.
Struggling to appease contradicting criticisms on the script from Rhimes and ABC execs,
Issa lost herself in her own work.
She’d compromised her vision into oblivion, but she wouldn’t make that mistake again.
'Boss up. You're a boss b*tch, so stop being soft.'
In 2013, she was approached by HBO to pitch some fresh ideas.
She called upon industry veteran Larry Wilmore, who’s had a hand in a number of Black TV favorites
such as ‘In Living Color’ and ‘Sister Sister.’
After a month of getting to know each other better, the two
In December of 2014, the script got the green light and the hunt for the perfect cast began.
That same year, Issa occupied a well-deserved spot as
With this new opportunity, Issa was
Issa often describes ‘Insecure’ as her love letter to LA.
She makes a point of depicting Inglewood as authentic to her experience as possible,
which means not shooting in more affluent areas north of Interstate 10
and documenting the gentrification that’s moving through the area.
Insecure’ is a hilarious, and sometimes dramatic, weekly half-hour that follows a 30-something woman’s often cringe-worthy encounters in love,
friendship and the nonprofit sector.
Season 1 pulled in just over 400,000 viewers, but
♪ Maybe it's dry as hell. Maybe it really smells. Broken P*ssy. ♪
Despite success, Issa realized that naming the lead character after herself wasn’t the best idea,
after fans would pummel her on social media, upset about fictional Issa’s decisions.
'You know people thinking they know you, they know your life, they know the decisions you made, and it’s hard for people to separate.
Because it’s my name, and so even when people talk mess about the character,
it’s still me and my name. So it’s hard to separate. It’s the worst decision I’ve ever made.'
Nonetheless, her acting has earned her two Golden Globes nominations and a Primetime Emmy nod.
Showrunner Prentice Penny, who grew up in the same neighborhood as Issa as a child, regards her as “a mini Oprah” and
Issa Rae wouldn’t take “no” for an answer.
She tore down every obstacle in her path, and her hustle has taken her to heights she never expected.
and her streak has only just begun.