An image from Insecure, one of the productions that also features Issa Rae.

Issa Rae

January 12, 1985 — Los Angeles, California, USA

JoIssa Rae Diop (born January 12, 1985), known professionally as Issa Rae, is an American actress, writer, and producer. She achieved recognition as the co-creator, co-writer, and star of the HBO comedy series Insecure (2016–2021), for which she was nominated for multiple Golden Globes Awards and Primetime Emmy Awards.

Rae first garnered attention for her work on the YouTube web series Awkward Black Girl (2011–2013). Her 2015 memoir, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, became a New York Times bestseller. In 2020, Rae formed the production company Hoorae Media.

Rae has also appeared in films, with roles in the drama The Hate U Give (2018), the fantasy comedy Little (2019), the romance The Photograph (2020), the romantic comedy The Lovebirds (2020), the comedy thriller Vengeance(2022), and the comedies Barbie and American Fiction (both 2023). She also had a voice role in the short film Hair Love (2019) and voiced Jess Drew / Spider-Woman in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023).

In 2018 and 2022, Rae was included in the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world and in 2014 in the Forbes '30 Under 30' list in the entertainment section. She was recognized with the Peabody Trailblazer Award and the Producers Guild of America Visionary Award.

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