Issa Rae facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Issa Rae
Rae in 2017
Born	JoIssa Rae Diop (1985-01-12) January 12, 1985 (age 40) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other names	JoIssa Diop-Diame
Education	Stanford University (BA)
Occupation	Actress writer producer
Years active	2011–present
Notable work	Awkward Black Girl, Insecure
Spouse(s)	Louis Diame ​ (m. 2021)​
Signature

JoIssa Rae Diop (born January 12, 1985), known as Issa Rae, is an American actress, writer, and producer. She started her own company, Hoorae Media. She became well-known for creating, writing, and starring in the HBO TV show Insecure (2016–2021). For her work on Insecure, she was nominated for many big awards like the Golden Globe Awards and Primetime Emmy Awards.

Issa Rae first got attention for her web series Awkward Black Girl on YouTube. Since 2011, she has used her YouTube channel to share short films, web series, and other content made by black people. Her book, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, came out in 2015 and became a New York Times bestseller.

Rae has also acted in movies. Some of her roles include The Hate U Give (2018), Little (2019), The Photograph (2020), The Lovebirds (2020), and Vengeance (2022). In 2023, she starred in Barbie and American Fiction, earning nominations with the casts. She also voiced Spider-Woman in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) and the upcoming Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. Rae also did voice work for the short film Hair Love, which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2020.

In 2018 and 2022, Time magazine named Issa Rae one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2014, Forbes magazine included her in their '30 Under 30' list for entertainment. She has also received special awards like the Peabody Trailblazer Award and the Producers Guild of America Visionary Award.

Early Life and Education

Jo-Issa Rae Diop was born in Los Angeles, California. Her father, Abdoulaye Diop, is a doctor for children from Senegal. Her mother, Delyna Marie Diop, is a teacher from Louisiana. Her parents met in France when they were students. Issa has four brothers and sisters. Her father has a medical office in Inglewood, California.

Her family lived in Dakar, Senegal, for a short time when she was a child. She grew up mostly in Potomac, Maryland. There, she did activities that were not always seen as "black," like being on the swim team and playing street hockey. When Issa was in sixth grade, her family moved to a wealthy neighborhood in Los Angeles called View Park-Windsor Hills. She went to a middle school there that was mostly black. Issa graduated from King Drew Magnet High School, where she started acting. Her parents divorced when she was in high school. Issa can speak French very well.

In 2007, Issa graduated from Stanford University with a degree in African and African-American Studies. While in college, she made music videos, wrote and directed plays, and created a fun mock reality show called Dorm Diaries. At Stanford, she met Tracy Oliver, who later helped produce Awkward Black Girl.

After college, Issa received a theater scholarship in New York City. She and Tracy Oliver took classes together at the New York Film Academy. Issa worked many different jobs. She was thinking about going to business school or law school, but she changed her mind when Awkward Black Girl became popular in 2011.

Career Highlights

Awkward Black Girl Web Series

Issa Rae's web series Awkward Black Girl first appeared on YouTube in 2011. The show is about a character named J (played by Issa Rae). It shows her life as she deals with co-workers and people she likes, who often put her in awkward situations. J tells her story through voice-overs or dream scenes, sharing how she feels.

The series quickly became popular through word of mouth, blogs, and social media. This led to it being featured in major news outlets. To get money for the rest of the first season, Rae and producer Tracy Oliver asked for donations through Kickstarter. On August 11, 2011, they raised $56,269 from 1,960 donations. They then released the rest of season one on Issa Rae's YouTube channel.

Issa Rae later worked with Pharrell Williams and launched the second season of the series on his YouTube channel, iamOTHER. Rae also started releasing other content on her original channel. This content was mostly created by and starred people of color.

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

By using YouTube, Rae had full control over her work. She writes, films, produces, and edits most of her projects. Rae's other shows, like Ratchet Piece Theater, The "F" Word, Roomieloverfriends, and The Choir, also focus on African-American experiences. These experiences are often not shown in mainstream media. Issa Rae's YouTube series often look like TV comedies, with "cut-away scenes" that show imagined actions, similar to shows like Scrubs.

Insecure TV Series

In 2013, Issa Rae started working on a comedy TV show with Larry Wilmore. She would also star in it. The show was about the awkward moments of a modern African-American woman. It was eventually named Insecure. HBO decided to make the show in early 2015. Since it came out in 2016, the series has been highly praised. Eric Deggans from NPR said that "Rae has made a series that feels new just by making fun of the life of an average, young black woman."

In late 2016, Issa Rae's mother, Delyna Diop, appeared in season 1 of Insecure. She played Issa's character's role model.

In 2017, the American Film Institute chose Insecure as one of the top 10 TV shows of the year. For her acting in the show, Issa Rae was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a TV Series – Musical or Comedy in 2017 and 2018. She also received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2018, 2020, and 2022.

In 2018, at the 77th annual Peabody Awards, Insecure was honored for "creating a series that truly shows the lives of everyday young, black people in modern society."

HBO renewed the show for a second season on November 14, 2016. The second season started on July 23, 2017. On August 8, 2017, it was announced that the show would have a third season, which premiered on August 12, 2018. The fifth season started on October 24, 2021. The last episode of Insecure aired on December 26, 2021.

Film Roles

In 2020, Issa Rae starred in The Photograph. She played Mae Morton, who searches for her mother's past with LaKeith Stanfield's character, Michael Block. The New York Times called the film "an old-fashioned love story." Empire magazine said that The Photograph is "an African-American romance that, for the most part, feels real and true."

Also in 2020, Issa Rae played Leilani in The Lovebirds, directed by Michael Showalter. The film also starred Kumail Nanjiani as Jibran, Leilani's boyfriend. In the movie, the couple tries to keep their relationship strong while they get involved in a murder.

Published Book

Issa Rae's first book, a memoir called The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, was released in 2015. It became a New York Times bestseller. In the book, she shares funny stories from her life. She also talks openly about her personal struggles with not fitting in and sometimes feeling like she wasn't "black enough."

Other Projects

In 2016, Issa Rae created a podcast called Fruit.

On October 11, 2019, Google announced that Issa Rae's voice would be an option for the Google Assistant. Users could make Google Assistant speak in Rae's voice by saying "Ok Google, talk like Issa." Issa's voice was available until October 1, 2021.

Also in 2019, Rae started her own record label, Raedio. She worked with Atlantic Records to release "Kinda Love" by singer-rapper TeaMarrr.

In March 2021, Issa Rae's production company, Hoorae, signed a five-year deal for films and TV shows with WarnerMedia. As part of this deal, she created Sweet Life: Los Angeles, a reality TV show, in 2021.

Issa Rae is also a co-owner of Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen, a coffee shop chain in Los Angeles.

Personal Life

Issa Rae's birth name, Jo-Issa, is a mix of her grandmothers' names: Joyce and Isseu. Her middle name, Rae, is named after an aunt who was an artist.

Issa Rae married her longtime boyfriend, Louis Diame, a businessman from Senegal. They had a private wedding in France in July 2021. Rae first showed her engagement ring in public on the cover of Essence magazine in April 2019.

Filmography

Film

Rae (second from left) talks about Little with co-stars Regina Hall and Marsai Martin and director Tina Gordon

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2014	Black Twitter Screening	N/A	Short film; writer only
	Protect and Serve	Police Recruit	Short film; also executive producer
	A Bitter Lime	Jane Johnson
2018	The Hate U Give	April Ofrah
2019	Little	April Williams
	Hair Love	Mother	Short film; voice role
2020	The Photograph	Mae Morton	Also executive producer
	The Lovebirds	Leilani
	Coastal Elites	Callie Josephson
2022	Vengeance	Eloise
2023	Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse	Jess Drew / Spider-Woman	Voice role
	Barbie	President Barbie
	American Fiction	Sintara Golden
TBA	Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse	Jess Drew / Spider-Woman	Voice role; In production

Key

Denotes films that have not yet been released

Television

As Producer Only

Music Videos

Awards and Nominations

See also

In Spanish: Issa Rae para niños