- Hey, I'm Issa Rae, and these are the moments that made me.
(hip-hop music)
So in 1996, I got to go the set of Moesha
and be in the live studio audience.
And I won a script.
That script was like the blueprint, it was the template,
it was the ticket to get into the industry for me,
and that's what I used to write my own stuff,
'cause I just, you know, I had it in front of me.
The next moment was probably around the same year, '96,
and it was, and I went to this church with my family,
and was bored to tears in church,
but put on my first play ever.
It was about the old people in our church,
and I called it "The Old and the Rested",
and casted a bunch of young kids to do it, and it was a hit.
And I was like, oh, can I write and direct?
The reverend came up to me afterwards and he was like,
"That was good, you have a future,"
and I thought was gassing me because God told him to,
but I think he really believed that.
I got to college in 2003.
I went to Stanford
and Stanford was white as (beep) at the time.
It still is.
The drama department was not really diverse,
and so I didn't really have the same opportunities
to be in the plays, and so my freshman year,
I was able to direct and adapt my own play,
and that's when I kinda left acting behind and was like,
I wanna be a director.
In 2006, 2007, it was my senior year in college.
Reality television had hit super hard
and Flavor of Love was super popular.
It was kind of disgusting when I realized,
like, this is the only representation
of Black women we have on a screen,
and they're all vying for Flavor of Love,
and no bitch that I know would do this, that's not real,
and so that was a moment where I was just like,
where is, where's our stuff?
Where's the stuff that I used to watch in the '90s?
Where is, where are we?
And I remember creating my first web series ever
called Dorm Diaries, and it was about what it was like
to be Black at Stanford, it was literally about my friends,
went viral on campus, and that meant like 500 views,
but it was like, oh snap.
I have an audience.
In 2011, I had been livin' in LA for about two years,
and I'd seen 30 Rock and I loved Curb Your Enthusiasm,
and I thought that there was a specific type
of Black girl missing and I always identified
as kinda awkward.
It was a revelation, actually, to me in my adult years,
and decided to create this character, Awkward Black Girl.
But I was just so frustrated and I had this blog
where I was constantly talking about the industry,
and someone on my blog was like, "Girl, you talk a lotta,
"like why don't you just make something?"
And I was like, okay, I guess I can.
I gathered some friends, I asked my best friend to film it,
and put out my first episode,
and that web series ended up changing my life.