Awkwafina is opening doors for other women in comedy. The “Crazy Rich Asians” breakout has a semi-autobiographical Comedy Central series in the works, and The Huffington Post reports that she’s assembled an all-female writers’ room for the project. Awkwafina herself confirmed the news via Twitter, writing, “This is true, and wasn’t even done on purpose: I just wanted to assemble a team of brilliant writers, and they all just happened to be women.”
Titled “Awkwafina,” the 10-episode series sees the “Ocean’s 8” actress playing a 20-something who lives with her father and grandmother in Queens, New York. Lucia Aniello (“Rough Night,” “Broad City”) is directing.
“Representation starts both in front of and behind the camera,” Awkwafina has said. Asked what the industry can do to make improvements in representing Asians on-screen, she observed, “I think a big reason there aren’t a lot of our stories reflected is people don’t know how to write for us or think they can’t write for us. So I think for any minority group, you need to have writers who can reflect those stories and tell them honestly. It’s important to give people a chance. Take a chance on opening up roles, even leads, for actors of color.”
The rapper reflected on how impactful it was for her to see Margaret Cho on-screen. “The first time I saw Margaret Cho on Comedy Central, she was like a unicorn. She was an Asian woman who had a perfect American accent, something I wasn’t used to seeing,” she recalled. “And she was so funny and unashamed and bold. I remember thinking, ‘That is what I want to be.’ Just seeing her made it seem slightly more possible,” she explained. “And then Lucy Liu in ‘Charlie’s Angels’ and Michelle Yeoh in her action movies. When you don’t have representation growing up, you don’t know how to materialize your dreams. You don’t even know it’s possible.”
Other series to feature seasons penned by all-female writers’ rooms include Netflix’s “Russian Doll,” BET’s “Hit the Floor,” and Hulu’s “Harlots.”
Awkwafina just signed on to the “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” sequel. She received strong reviews out of Sundance for her starring role in Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell,” a comedy about a family that doesn’t tell their grandmother she’s terminally ill. No word on a release date yet.
