Issa Rae is an American actress who grew up in environments that would make people perceive her as not being black enough. Her initial career choices included medicine, business and law, but that all changed when her web series, Awkward Black Girl, created to counter Hollywood stereotypes of black women inspired by her own experiences, began to gain traction. As a result, Rae decided to abandon all other plans to devote herself to acting and film. Awkward Black Girl in 2013 won the Shorty Award for Best Web Show. Her next show, Insecure was even a bigger hit. Rae has now received at least two Golden Globe nominations and was named to TIME Magazine’s 2018 list of the world’s most influential people.
Issa Rae was born as Jo-Issa Rae Diop on January 12, 1985 in Los Angeles, California. Her name, Issa, is a combination of the names of her two grandmothers. Joyce and Isseu while her middle name Rae is in honor of her aunt who is an artist. Issa Rae has four siblings. During her childhood, Rae was raised in Dakar, Senegal, her father’s home country. Rae was later raised in Potomac, Maryland and later in the affluent View Park-Windsor Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles.
During her childhood, she grew up with things that aren’t conventionally considered black, including having Jewish best friends and playing street hockey. At one point in school, she was criticized for not acting black enough. Keen to follow in her father’s footsteps to become a doctor, Rae attends King Drew Magnet Graduate School of Medicine and Science. However, she would soon discover that medicine was not her thing.
Rae had been involved in her role for years when she performed a play in her family’s church. At Stanford, Rae created, just for fun, a reality television series called Dorm Diaries. She has also directed music videos, directed plays and written scripts. After graduating from Stanford in 2007, Rae earned a theater scholarship to The Public Theater in New York and also attended the New York Film Academy.
Issa Rae teamed up with her friend Tracy Oliver to produce Awkward Black Girl based on her life as an unconventional black girl. After college, Rae held a variety of jobs and considered careers in business and law. She quickly dropped both thoughts after her YouTube web series Awkward started gaining traction in 2011.
The web series received favorable reviews from fans and caught the attention of television executives. With funding from Kickstarter and later musician Pharrell, Rae was able to create more episodes of his show and break into the mainstream. In early 2015, HBO purchased its pilot for Insecure, making Issa Rae the first black woman to create, produce and star in a series on a major network.
Her first book, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, published in 2015, is a New York Times bestseller. Rae went on to produce a host of other shows and shorts.
Issa Rae was born to parents Abdoulaye and DelynaDiop. Her father Adboulaye is a pediatric doctor from Senegal. He practiced in Inglewood, California. His mother, Delyna (née Hayward), a teacher by profession, is an African American from Louisianna.
Rae’s parents were educated in France, where they first met. While Rae was in high school, her parents divorced. Her father wanted her to become a doctor or a lawyer and was horrified when she decided to major in African American studies. With the level of accomplishments Rae has achieved, we bet her dad feels totally different to her today.
Issa Rae has a brother named Lamine Diop who fell under the media radar, not for his career, but for his shrewdness. However, it is highly likely that the future musician Lamine, like his sister, will quickly gain popularity for his activities in the entertainment industry. Lamine frequently uses her social media pages to support her sister. This is how he caught the attention of the media. Essence Magazine in a short article about him revealed his height to be 6ft 6in. See more of his cuteness on Twitter and Instagram where he goes with the handle “enimalwins.”
As far as we know, Issa Rae has never been married and chances are the media will hardly get any details if she gets screwed, it’s because Issa is extremely private when it comes to her personal life.
In her interview with Vogue for their March 2018, Issa was asked if she was dating anyone and she made it clear to Vogue that she doesn’t want any information from people about her love life. So she asked the question. However, in the past, Issa has been linked with American/Ghanaian actor Kofi Siriboe who is known for appearing on OWN’s Queen Sugar show.
The duo sparked relationship rumors after they apparently flirted with each other on social media. However, in a radio interview with The Breakfast Club, Rae denied the rumours, saying she was not secretly dating the Ghanaian guy. Kofi would later confirm his relationship with Sudanese ebony model model Duckie Thot.
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