Issa Rae: ‘I Never Identified as a Nerd’

When Issa Rae read an article several years back asking why there wasn’t a black counterpart to 30 Rock’s resolutely awkward Liz Lemon, she was inspired to create one. With a little help from Kickstarter, she made a web series, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, which quickly went viral. In 2015, HBO picked up her show Insecure, which will enter its third season later this year. A crisply written, visually sleek representation of young black professionals navigating love and work in Los Angeles, it joins what she describes as a renaissance in black TV and film.

With a subtlecomic touch, has tackled such thorny issues as workplace discrimination, the clumsiness of well-meaning whites, gentrification, and gender and class identity. Now on , a television series about a bisexual black man’s life and loves. Word of the show triggered an angry response on social media from some in the black community, who complained that a queer black lead would reflect unfavorably on black men. Rae was dismayed by the reaction, but not on television.”