For Issa Rae of 'Insecure,' Supporting Black LA Is a Mission That Goes Beyond the Cameras

The producer and actor talks holiday plans, the legacy of 'Insecure,' and what’s next.

issa rae
Image by Grace Han for Thrillist
Image by Grace Han for Thrillist

Issa Rae is finishing up production on Rap Sh*t, a new HBOMax comedy series that she’s co-executive producing with hip hop duo, City Girls, in Miami, Florida, when we speak. But just like a kid counting down the days until Christmas, the producer, writer, and star of HBO’s hit comedy-drama series Insecure is eagerly anticipating her return to her hometown of LA.

“I love that it’s sunny and warm,” she says, about spending her holidays at home. She adds that, “I can choose to be cold if I want to. I can turn the air on or put fake snow on the lawn and it'll feel just as good. But I do not need cold weather to make it feel like it's the holidays—and it does get a little cold!”

This year, Rae has even more to celebrate as the holidays coincide with the series finale of Insecure, concluding its run after five seasons. First debuted in 2016 as an offshoot of her Shorty award-winning web series, Awkward Black Girl, the show follows Issa Dee, played by Rae, as she navigates career, love life, and friendships as a Black millennial in LA. The show stands out not just for its sharp comedy and the synergy among its cast (with actors like Yvonne Orji, Natasha Rothwell, and Jay Ellis in supporting roles), but for highlighting a side of LA that’s rarely seen on mainstream TV—including the influence of local Black communities.

As Rae explains, “It was extremely personal to me. It's where I grew up and I wanted to showcase those neighborhoods the way that I see them. As beautiful, and as characters. I wanted to get people familiar with the fact that LA is more than what they think it is. LA culture is not Hollywood culture. It's not The Hills culture. It’s these particular neighborhoods and that was really important for me to showcase."

Rae wears numerous hats on and off set—executive producer, showrunner, writer, actor—yet still plays an integral role in curating the businesses that are featured on the program, many of which are Black-owned. She says that, “I’m extremely involved, and some of the writers are involved as well. We have LA natives in the room, so sometimes when I draw a blank somebody else will be like, what about this place? And sometimes it'll be places that I haven't frequented yet. So it's really a group effort, but it's definitely intentional.”

Many of the spots featured on the show have enjoyed a boom in business, which Rae cites as a double-edged sword, joking that, “Looking back, it's nice that we featured them, but for some of them we've made the lines too long and now I can't eat there as often. So I have regrets.”

worldwide tacos
Photo courtesy of HBOMax

Rae names Worldwide Tacos, featured in season 3 of the show, as her first planned stop when she touches down at LAX for the holidays. She strategizes aloud, saying, “I don't know my flight yet, but if I land at 7 am, I'm going to place an order at 10 am, and be prepared to not eat until 4 pm. That’s just what you have to do because the wait is so long.”

Most of Rae’s LA recommendations fall south of the I-10 freeway, in neighborhoods like Inglewood, Leimert Park, and Crenshaw. She says that, “Banadir, a Somali restaurant in Inglewood is a must. They have the best goat, it’s so well-seasoned.” She also mentions Inglewood’s only wine bar, 1010 Wine, as a recently opened spot that she can’t wait to support.

But Rae’s neighborhood impact goes further than the businesses featured on Insecure. She’s a partial owner of Hilltop Coffee and is involved in the upcoming Destination Crenshaw project, a 1.3-mile open-air cultural museum and business corridor that’s set to arrive along a historic section of Crenshaw Boulevard. For Rae, all of these efforts contribute to an overarching goal of protecting LA’s Black history—and its future.

“I want to ensure that this part of LA is known as historically Black and is acknowledged as such in the same way that Harlem is,” Rae says. “Crenshaw is flossing, that area is legendary. So much culture resides there and to be able to have an initiative that's dedicated to preserving that feels so special to me. It feels so necessary. The subway line that was built there almost tried to disregard the neighborhood, so to be able to have a staple museum is a beautiful thing. It's made the best out of a potentially bad situation.”

She adds that, “Hopefully, by the time the Super Bowl comes in 2022, elements of the park will be up so people who come from Inglewood across to South LA can say, ‘Oh, I’m in a Black neighborhood. I want to know more about this and learn the history of what came from here.’”

destination crenshaw
Photo courtesy of Destination Crenshaw

For Rae, leaving behind Insecure and her character Issa Dee is bittersweet, but it’s coming at the right time. She tells us, “While creating this show and writing this show, I’ve learned so much about myself through these characters. It's been therapeutic in many ways. I feel I'm in such a different place than I was when I first started it. I'm so much more confident in who I am and what my voice is and with my place in this industry.”

Rae quickly shuts down our idea of a Confident spinoff series, but says that fans can look forward to Rap Sh*t, which is expected to release sometime next year, and a reboot of the unscripted HBO docu-series Project Greenlight, where Rae will act as a mentor as they present an undiscovered female-identified filmmaker with the opportunity to direct their first feature film.

Beyond that?

“It's kind of a blank slate,” Rae admits. “I'm just excited to see what comes.”

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Danielle Dorsey is the Los Angeles Editor at Thrillist.