“Insecure” debuted on HBO less than a month ago to rave reviews, but the comedy’s star, co-creator, and executive producer isn’t just basking in the success of her new series — she’s busy working on other projects. Issa Rae will executive produce “Minimum Wage,” a six-episode comedic anthology series that hails from Project Greenlight Digital Studios and Rae’s ColorCreative.TV, Deadline reports.
Project Greenlight and ColorCreative.TV teamed up to launch The New Normal Writing Contest with the goal of finding — and highlighting — underrepresented voices in media. The three writers of “Minimum Wage” — Rebecca Hu, Arpita Kumar, and Maya Houston — participated in the contest. The scripts the women submitted for consideration can be found on Project Greenlight’s website.
Deadline writes that “Minimum Wage” follows “five unique employees who work at a run-down fast food restaurant in LA’s Koreatown as they try desperately to improve its business in addition to their personal lives.”
Cindy Fang and Deniese Davis join Rae as executive producers. “Creed’s” co-writer, Aaron Covington, will direct. The cast includes Alma Delfina (“Days of Our Lives”), John Yuan (“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”), D’Lo (“Looking”), Halleta Alemu (“Film HQ”), and Gabriel Brown (“Madam Secretary”).
“I’m so proud of the writing team behind ‘Minimum Wage,’” said Rae. “It is the beautiful product of collaboration, creativity, and inclusion.” She added, “We’re so happy to have partnered with Project Greenlight Digital Studios to find, out of over 2,000 submissions, these dynamic women writers.”
Besides “Insecure,” Rae is best known as the creator and star of the web series “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.” She released a book under the same title in 2015.
Rae, who counts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler among her inspirations, has a first-look production deal with HBO.