ISSA RAE

Issa Rae is kind of a big deal. The writer, producer, director and actress responsible for HBO’s hit show Insecure has already been named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people, while her show has been nominated for a Golden Globe and several Emmys. In March, she signed an eight-figure film and TV deal with WarnerMedia (which includes HBO). And all while she’s well under the age of 40. (If it sounds like she should be on one of those 40-under-40 lists… she is!)
That’s a far cry from not being able to afford a cup of coffee in the years after college. Born Jo-Issa Rae Diop in 1985, the star is named after her grandmothers, Joyce and Isseu, and grew up as the middle child of five to a pediatrician and a teacher. After a meteoric rise to fame following her web series The Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl, Rae has not only starred on and produced her own HBO show; she’s also appeared in films like Little, The Hate U Give and The Lovebirds, the latter of which she also co-executive produced. (Her adorable costar on that project? The Big Sickand Eternals star Kumail Nanjiani.) 
She’s also got “reality-show producer” on her resumé thanks to, Sweet Life: Los Angeles, which premiered on HBO Max in the summer of 2021. She’ll even be turning up in the animated sequel Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2.
After an an amazing final season of Insecure, Rae’s said she’s not sure if she’s going to continue working both in front of and behind the camera. “I told myself I would never write and be in a show that I created again. It takes up a lot of your life, and I like to do a lot of things. I love doing this show. I’m so grateful to be able to do this show. But that’s just not really for me,” she said earlier this year. 

Rae admits that she’s “always thinking about work.” She even estimates that she has about 22 projects in development overall. “I was always like this,” she says. “[In the past] it was like, ‘I need to work to make sure I have the means of affording a place to live.’ [Or], ‘This didn’t work, what’s the next thing I can do?’ I think that’s just how my mind works. That’s Capricorns**t. Workaholic s**t.”