Robin Thede and Issa Rae are teaming up for a sketch comedy series that’s not dominated by white men. Titled “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” the upcoming half-hour HBO series will “feature narrative sketches performed by a core cast of black women, including Thede, as well as celebrity guests,” Variety reports. The project received a straight-to-series order from the premium cable network.
“A Black Lady Sketch Show” won’t just star women — they’ll also write and direct the series.
Best known for hosting BET’s “The Rundown with Robin Thede” and writing and serving as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore,” Thede is credited as the creator of “A Black Lady Sketch Show” and will write and exec produce in addition to starring. Her “Rundown” collaborator Lauren Ashley Smith will serve as head writer and co-executive producer. Rae is among the project’s executive producers.
“For the first 10 years of my career as a writer, I never worked in another room with a woman–it was all men,” Thede has said. “I was referred to as the ‘girl writer’ in one room for two years. And when I was allowed to speak, it was when they had something the female characters were going to say. It is tortuous and awful.” She emphasized that comedy is an industry dominated by white males and she “just had to be 10 times better.”
Thede suggested that “The Rundown” had the most diverse staff in late-night with 75 percent of the team being women and/or people of color. “I told everybody at my show, you’ve all been underestimated,” she recalled. “And it made some of them cry. I interviewed every one of them, and I said I know that people have underestimated you and that stops now. I expect you to be everything you can be today and here, and it’s why our show is doing as well as it is, and I know it will continue to grow because I demand excellence.”
“The Rundown” ran from 2017-2018.
Rae co-created, exec produces, and stars in LA-set comedy “Insecure.” The series has been renewed for a fourth season and is expected to return this year.
