Chicago native Lena Waithe is an American screenwriter, producer and actress who was the first AfricanAmerican woman to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing
for a Comedy Series for Master of None:
Thanksgiving. The episode, co-written by Waithe, was centered around her character, and inspired by her
own experience of coming out to her mother. She addressed her LGBTQ+ family in her Emmy speech,
telling them that "The things that make us different-those are our superpowers."
Waithe also created the autobiographical drama series, "The Chi", wrote and produced the film Queen &
Slim, and voiced the first queer animated Disney character in the Pixar animated movie "Onward". Her
additional producer credits include for "Dear White People", "Ladylike", "Step Sisters" and "The 40-YearOld Version".
As a writer, she also supports the black community as the co-chair of the Committee of Black
Writers at the Writers Guild.
Her work is not devoid of controversy, the most recent being criticism levelled at the TV series "Them", of
which she is the Executive Producer. One example is a Los Angeles Times article about the series which
states that "the most shocking horror lies in its more realistic scenes of racist violence".
Lena
Waithe
INFLUENCIAL PEOPLE
"The things that
make us different,
those are our
superpowers."
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