Lena Waithe (; born May 17, 1984) is an American actress, producer, and screenwriter. She is the creator of the Showtime drama series '' The Chi'' (2018–present) and the BET comedy series ''

Boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool typically constructed with airfoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight, designed to return to the thrower. The origin of the word is from Australian Aborigin ...

'' (2019–20) and '' Twenties'' (2020–21). She also wrote and produced the

crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

'' Queen & Slim'' (2019) and is the executive producer of the horror

anthology series An anthology series is a written series, radio, television, film, or video game series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a different ca ...

'' Them'' (2021–present). Waithe gained recognition for her role in the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

comedy-drama series ''

Master of None ''Master of None'' is an American comedy drama television series, which was released for streaming on November 6, 2015, on Netflix. The series was created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang, with the first two seasons starring Ansari in the lead rol ...

'' (2015–2021), and became the first African-American woman to win the

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...

for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

for writing the show's "

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...

" episode, which was loosely based on her personal experience of

coming out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

to her mother. She has also appeared in

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

's 2018

adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...

'' Ready Player One'' and the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

series ''

Westworld ''Westworld'' is an American science fiction dystopia media franchise that began with the Westworld (film), 1973 film ''Westworld'', written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film depicts a technologically advanced Wild West, Wild-West-th ...

''. In 2023, she received a nomination for Best Play at the 76th Tony Awards, her production work on the sketch-comedy play '' Ain't No Mo'.'' Waithe was named one of ''Time'' magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018; and was included on

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is an American business magazine published monthly in print and online, focusing on technology, business, and design. It releases six print issues annually. History ''Fast Company'' was founded in November 1995 by Alan Webb ...

's Queer 50 list in 2021 and 2022.

Early life and education

Waithe was born in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. Her father, Lawrence David Waithe, died when she was 15.Stated on ''

Finding Your Roots ''Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'' is an American documentary television series hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. that premiered on March 25, 2012, on PBS. In each episode, celebrities are presented with a "book of life" that is com ...

'', February 15, 2022 Her paternal great-grandfather, Winston Waithe, emigrated from

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

to Boston in 1921; his family, descended from enslaved people on sugar plantations, was from

Christ Church, Barbados The parish of Christ Church is one of eleven historic political divisions of Barbados. It has a land area of and is found at the southern end of the island. Christ Church has survived by name as one of the original six parishes created in 1629 ...

. Though acting was not originally among her ambitions, she knew from the age of seven that she wanted to be a television writer and received strong family support for her writing from her single mother and grandmother. Her parents had divorced when she was 3. Waithe and her sister grew up on the South Side of Chicago until Waithe was 12; she attended a local, mostly African-American elementary

magnet school In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. Normally, a student will attend an elementary school, and this also determines the middle school and high school they attend unless they mo ...

, Turner-Drew, but moved to Evanston and finished middle school at Chute Middle School. She graduated from

Evanston Township High School Evanston Township High School (ETHS) (District 202) is a public high school in Evanston, Illinois. The campus is located in a northern suburb of Chicago along the Lake Michigan shore. ETHS was established in 1883 and serves the city of Evanston a ...

and earned a degree in cinema and television arts from

Columbia College Chicago Columbia College Chicago is a Private college, private art college in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1890, it has 6,493 students (as of fall 2021) pursuing degrees in more than 60 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. It i ...

in 2006, praising faculty playwright Michael Fry for his teaching and encouragement. Seeking more ways to involve herself in the television and film industry, she also worked at a movie theater, at a

Best Buy Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was r ...

, and at a Blockbuster.

Career

Having arrived in Los Angeles, Waithe secured a job as an assistant to the executive producer of '' Girlfriends'', a long-running sitcom. Soon after, she landed a minor role in Lisa Kudrow's '' The Comeback''. She later became a writer for the Fox television series '' Bones'', a writer for the 2012

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

sitcom '' How to Rock'', and a producer on the 2014 satirical comedy film '' Dear White People''. Waithe wrote and appeared in the YouTube series "Twenties", produced by Flavor Unit Entertainment and optioned in 2014 by BET. In addition to writing and directing the short film "Save Me", which was shown at several independent film festivals, Waithe wrote the 2013 web series "Hello Cupid" and the 2011 viral video '' Shit Black Girls Say''. In 2014, ''Variety'' named Waithe one of its "10 Comedians to Watch". In August 2015, Showtime commissioned a pilot for an upcoming series, ''The Chi'', written by Waithe and produced by

Common Common may refer to: As an Irish surname, it is anglicised from Irish Gaelic surname Ó Comáin. Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Com ...

, which tells a young urban Black-American man's coming-of-age story. As the show's creator, Waithe wanted to mine her experience growing up on the South Side and experiencing its diversity to craft a story that paints a more nuanced portrait of her hometown than is typically shown. Similarly, she extended her influence to support the Black-American community in the entertainment industry through her role as co-chair of the Committee of Black Writers at the Writers Guild. In 2015, Waithe was cast in the

series ''

'' after meeting creator and lead actor Aziz Ansari who, with Alan Yang, had originally written Denise as a straight, white woman with the potential, according to Waithe, to evolve into one of the main character's love interests: "For some reason, asting director Allison Jones thought about me for it, a Black gay woman." Ansari and Yang rewrote the script to make the character more like Waithe: "All of us actors play heightened versions of ourselves." She said, "I don't know if we've seen a sly, harem pants-wearing, cool Topshop sweatshirt-wearing, snapback hat-rocking lesbian on TV." She also said, "I know how many women I see out in the world who are very much like myself. We exist. To me, the visibility of it was what was going to be so important and so exciting." In 2017, Waithe and Ansari won the

for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the season 2 episode "

". She became the first African-American woman to win an Emmy in that category. Waithe described the episode as based on her

experience as a

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

. During her Emmy speech, she sent a special message to her LGBTQIA (Lesbian, Gay,

Bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

Transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

Queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

Intersex Intersex people are those born with any of several sex characteristics, including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binar ...

, and Asexual) family discussing how "The things that make us different—those are our superpowers." She ended her speech by recognizing her journey as a Black woman, saying, "Thank you for embracing a little Indian boy from

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

and a little queer Black girl from the South Side of Chicago." Waithe also developed an autobiographical drama series, '' The Chi''.

Out Magazine ''Out'' is an American LGBTQ news, fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle magazine, with the highest circulation of any LGBTQ monthly publication in the United States. ''Out'' was owned by Robert Hardman of Boston, its original investor, until 2 ...

named Waithe the Out100: Artist of the Year on November 8, 2017. Since 2018, Waithe has provided the voiceover of the tagline of

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

commercials. The same year, she became the first Black queer woman since November 2003 to be featured on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine. Waithe also founded her production company, Hillman Grad Productions. Waithe wrote and produced the road trip-crime film '' Queen & Slim'', starring Jodie Turner-Smith and

Daniel Kaluuya Daniel Kaluuya (; born 24 February 1989) is an English actor. His work encompasses both screen and stage, and List of awards and nominations received by Daniel Kaluuya, his accolades include an Academy Awards, Academy Award, two British Academy ...

, and directed by Melina Matsoukas. It was released on November 27, 2019, by

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

. This film focuses on powerful social issues such as systemic racism,

police brutality Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or Public order policing, a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, b ...

and oppression. It has been depicted as a “a meditation on a system of justice that treats innocent people as outlaws,” or “a bourgeois representation of the struggle against police oppression." Queen & Slim won a BET Award for Best Movie (2020), Florida Film Critics Circle Award (2019) as well as other awards. In 2020, Waithe lent her voice to the

Pixar Pixar (), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney ...

animated film '' Onward'', portraying the cyclops police officer Specter, the first queer animated character in Disney history. She focuses on recruiting more people of color and queer artists for her film and television projects. In 2020 her production company, Hillman Grad Productions, opened a mentoring and training program with financial support from the Froneri ice-cream company. More recently, she signed a deal with the Warner Bros. TV Group in order to develop a TV version of '' Hoop Dreams''.

Personal life

Waithe became engaged in 2017 to Alana Mayo, a content executive. They married in 2019 in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. On January 23, 2020, Waithe and Mayo announced that they had separated after two months of marriage. In November 2020, Mayo filed for divorce from Waithe; the divorce was finalized by agreement on May 24, 2021. Waithe's relationship with English actress

Cynthia Erivo Cynthia Chinasaokwu Onyedinmanasu Amarachukwu Owezuke Echimino Erivo ( ; born 8 January 1987) is a British actress and singer. Known for her work on both stage and screen, she is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Cynt ...

was confirmed in 2024. Waithe has described her family as "lazy

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

" and said in 2018, "I'm a huge believer in

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

, and

Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

, and that God made me and all those things. And I try to just be a good person. I think that is the base of my religion, is to be good, is to be honest."

Filmography

Film

Television

Actress

Writer

Producer

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Waithe, Lena 1984 births Living people 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American writers 21st-century African-American actresses 21st-century American actresses 21st-century American women writers Actresses from Chicago African-American screenwriters African-American television writers Columbia College Chicago alumni American lesbian actresses American lesbian writers American people of Barbadian descent African-American LGBTQ people Lesbian Christians Lesbian comedians LGBTQ people from Illinois Primetime Emmy Award winners Screenwriters from Chicago Television writers from Illinois American women television writers African-American Christians 21st-century American screenwriters 21st-century African-American women writers 20th-century African-American women American LGBTQ comedians African-American female comedians African-American comedians Comedians from Chicago African-American lesbian writers