Issa Rae
Issa Rae
Issa Raeis an American actress and writer. She 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...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionYouTube Star
Date of Birth12 January 1985
CountryUnited States of America
characters relate
Part of the allure of watching characters on-screen is to be able to put yourself in his or her shoes or to be able to relate to what he or she is going through or what he or she is thinking.
basically filmmakers minority produce range screen tina voices
I really want to be the black Tina Fey, where I just am able to produce my own content and produce other content for other minority filmmakers and put their voices on screen and basically be able to have free range to produce.
awkward cool mainstream overly people portrayed
Black and awkward is the worst, because black people are stereotyped as being anything but awkward in mainstream media... Black people are always portrayed to be cool or overly dramatic, anything but awkward.
audacity ethnicity outside painted people picture pop question race threaten
It's one thing when other African-Americans try to threaten my race card, but when people outside of my ethnicity have the audacity to question how 'down' I am because of the bleak, stereotypical picture pop culture has painted for me as a black woman? Unacceptable.
funny hate humor klan member saying
I hate to say it but I hate black humor. I feel like a Klan member saying it, but it's just not funny.
confined limited mainstream people portrayal
People are tired of mainstream media's limited and confined portrayal of people of color.
blackness blacks choices choosing clearly considered fact folk joining known life love questioned swim vegetarian
As a teenager, my blackness was also questioned by some of the life choices I made that weren't considered to be 'black' choices. For example, joining the swim team when it is a known fact that 'black folk don't swim'; or choosing to become a vegetarian when blacks clearly love chicken.
convinced episode jewish love mainstream media people scene watch
Mainstream media has convinced people that black people aren't relatable. So when a Jewish person comes up to me and is all, 'Oh man, I love that one scene from Episode 3, I watch it over and over again,' I'm so happy. Because that's what I want.
realistic stanford web
My first web series, 'Dorm Diaries,' was a realistic mockumentary about what it was like to be black at Stanford University. I'm black and I went to Stanford. Boom. Easy.
attention bring content curate filmmakers presence web
I'm transitioning to television and film, but ultimately, I want to have a stronger presence on the web and be able to curate the content that I want to see. To bring attention to other filmmakers and writers.
mainstream people
There's so many, 'no, black people aren't like that' barriers in mainstream media.
mouth people social spreading word
'Awkward Black Girl' is spreading to all the right people because of word of mouth and social networks. I'm so grateful.
blend ultimately
I think that television and the web are fusing anyway, so I think that ultimately whatever I do, I'm going to blend the two forms.
jokes life multiple personally sound talking
I personally don't feel any pressure to make jokes about multiple baby-fathers and stereotypical black jokes, because one, that's just not my life, and two, I wouldn't even sound right talking about those things.