Issa Rae
| Issa Rae | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Jo-Issa Rae Diop January 12, 1985 Los Angeles, California U.S. |
| Nationality | Senegalese-American |
| Other names | Joissa Diop |
| Alma mater | Stanford University |
| Occupation | Director, writer, actress, producer, web series creator |
| Years active | 2011–present |
| Known for | Awkward Black Girl, Insecure |
| Website | IssaRae |
Jo-Issa "Issa" Rae Diop (born January 12, 1985) is an American actress, writer, director, producer and web series creator. 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. Rae's shows have garnered over 20 million views and over 200,000 subscribers on YouTube.
As of 2016, Rae is the creator, co-writer and star of the HBO series Insecure, which is partially based on Awkward Black Girl.
Rae was born in Los Angeles, California. Her father, Dr. Abdoulaye Diop, is a pediatric doctor from Senegal, and her mother, Delyna Diop (née Hayward), is a teacher from Louisiana. Rae's parents met in France, when they were both in school. She has four siblings. The family lived in Dakar, Senegal for a short period during her childhood. Her father has a medical practice in Inglewood, California.
As a child, Rae lived in Potomac, Maryland, where she grew up with "things that aren't considered 'black,' like the swim team and street hockey and Passover dinners with Jewish best friends." When she was in sixth grade, her family moved to the Windsor Hills section of Los Angeles where she attended a predominantly black middle school where Rae said she was "berated for 'acting white'" and initially found it difficult to "fit into this 'blackness' I was supposed to be." Rae graduated from King Drew Magnet High School of Medicine and Science, where she started acting. Her parents divorced when she was in high school.
...
Wikipedia