Issa Rae

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 achieved wider recognition as the co-creator, co-writer, and star of the HBO television series Insecure (2016–2021), for which she was 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 bestseller. In 2018 and 2022, 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), the romantic comedy The Lovebirds (2020), the comedy thriller Vengeance (2022), and the comedy Barbie (2023). She also voiced Jess Drew / Spider-Woman in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) and Beyond the Spider-Verse (upcoming). Rae provided the voice work for the short film Hair Love, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2020. Early life Jo-Issa Rae Diop was born in Los Angeles, California. Her father, Abdoulaye Diop, is a pediatrician and neonatologist from Senegal, and her mother, Delyna Marie Diop (née Hayward), is a teacher from Louisiana. Her parents met in France, when they were both in school. She has four siblings. Her father has a medical practice in Inglewood, California.