“Insecure’s” upcoming fifth and final season won’t be the end of Issa Rae’s relationship with HBO. The collaborators are just getting started. The Emmy-nominated actress, creator, writer, and exec producer just signed a five-year overall deal with WarnerMedia “for all forms of television, to include HBO, HBO Max, and Warner Bros. Television, and a first-look for features with Warner Bros. Pictures Group, New Line, and HBO Max,” a press release details. Projects will be developed with Hoorae, Rae’s media company. Sources tell Variety that the deal is valued at $40 million.
Rae previously inked a two-year-overall deal with HBO in 2016 and renewed the pact for a three-year term in 2018.
“We have been in business with Issa for more than eight years, and we couldn’t be prouder of our collaboration,” said Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer for HBO and HBO Max. “‘Insecure’ was a breakthrough series for HBO, and there is much more on the horizon. This new deal is an opportunity to leverage the strength of WarnerMedia to provide a multitude of platforms for Issa’s formidable talents as a producer and storyteller.”
Rae added, “HBO has been supportive of my work since the very first general meeting I had with Casey in 2012. I’m thrilled to not only spread my creative wings with the network that makes all of my favorite series, but also to produce culturally resonant stories with new voices that incite exciting conversations via Hoorae’s expanded relationship with all WarnerMedia platforms.”
HBO and HBO Max have a number of projects on the way from Hoorae, “Insecure’s” upcoming fifth season, which is currently in production, and the second season of “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” set to premiere April 23, among them. Other previously announced titles in the works include “The Vanishing Half,” an adaptation of Brit Bennett’s novel about estranged Black identical twin sisters whose fates intersect, “Nice White Parents,” an adaptation of the popular podcast about the influence of resourced white parents on Black and brown students within the New York public school system, and “Seen & Heard,” a two-part documentary exploring the history of Black television.
“The Photograph,” “Little,” and “The Hate U Give” are among Rae’s on-screen credits. Her upcoming projects include “The Dolls,” a limited series based on real-life Christmas Eve riots caused by Cabbage Patch Kids, and “Sinkhole,” a genre movie that interrogates the notion of female perfection.