Issa Rae, American actress, writer, director, producer and web series creator
Jo-Issa Rae Diop (born January 12, 1985), credited professionally as Issa Rae, is an American actress, writer, and producer. Rae first garnered attention for her work on the YouTube web series Awkward Black Girl. Since 2011, Rae has continued to develop her YouTube channel, which features various short films, web series, and other content created by black people.Rae has achieved wider recognition as the co-creator, co-writer, and star of the HBO television series Insecure (2016–2021), for which she has been nominated for multiple Golden Globes Awards and Primetime Emmy Awards. Her 2015 memoir, titled The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, became a New York Times best-seller. In 2018, Rae was included in the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.Rae has also starred in feature films, with roles in the drama The Hate U Give (2018), the fantasy comedy Little (2019), the romance The Photograph (2020), and the romantic comedy The Lovebirds (2020). She will also voice Jessica Drew / Spider-Woman in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One) (2022). Rae provided the voice work for the short film Hair Love, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2020.