Issa Rae has been giving showstopping performances since her days on Youtube days. Issa Rae started acting during her college days when she created her own webseries, Awkward Black Girl. In 2015, she wrote The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, in which she tells her life story through a series of personal essays. Rae’s career skyrocketed, and she became a household name when she created and starred as the lead in the HBO series Insecure from 2016-2021. Since the end of Insecure, she has been working on several other projects for HBO, including her latest project, Rap Sh!t. Throughout all of her work, her content centers and celebrates Black stories. Here are seven of Issa Rae’s best performances, ranked.
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7 The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl (2011)
Youtube
Her first major project, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, often just called Awkward Black Girl, is a comedy Youtube series. Awkward Black Girl follows J (Rae) as she navigates being an awkward Black girl at work and in life. She relied on friends to help her shoot the first episode, which went viral and garnered nearly 2,000 donations for a total of $56,269. The show was so successful that season two aired on Pharrell’s i am OTHER. The show was a hit, especially among young Black women, and won a Shorty Award in 2012.
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6 The Hate U Give (2018)
20th Century Fox
The Hate U Give stars Amandla Stenberg, Regina Hall, KJ Apa, Anthony Mackie, and Issa Rae. This 2018 drama is based on the novel by the same name and follows Starr Carter (Stenberg), a Black teenager attending a predominantly white private school. After getting pulled over with her boyfriend Khalil, a white officer shoots and kills him, thinking he’s armed. Throughout the film, Starr is encouraged by a civil rights lawyer, April (Rae) and goes on to do television interviews and testify in front of the grand jury to defend Khalil.
5 ROAR (2022)
Apple Inc.
A new and unique show, streaming on Apple TV, ROAR consists of eight stand-alone episodes that follow eight women’s lives. Starring Nicole Kidman, Cynthia Erivo, and Issa Rae, ROAR is Based on a collection of short stories by Cecelia Ahern, the show is linked only in that the stories are all feminist fables and discuss what it means to be a woman in the world. Issa Rae’s episode focuses on how easily the voices of Black women can disappear and the ways in which Black trauma is often monetized for the viewing experience.
4 The Photograph (2020)
Universal Pictures
The Photograph is a romantic drama starring LaKeith Stanfield and Issa Rae as the romantic leads. Written and directed by Stella Meghie, this 2020 movie tells a series of nonlinear love stories, both past, and present. The Photograph follows Mae Eames (Rae) as she grieves the loss of her mother. After finding a photo, she dives into the past to further explore her mother’s life, leading to her own romance with Michael (Stanfield), a journalist. This movie is Rae’s first lead role in a dramatic film.
3 Vengeance (2022)
Focus Features
Vengeance is a 2022 comedic mystery starring BJ Novak, Dove Cameron, Ashton Kutcher, and Issa Rae. The movie follows Ben Manalowitz (Novak), a writer from New York City, as he tries to navigate small town Texas and solve the murder of a woman he hooked up with a while back. He sells the idea of her murder to Eloise (Rae) a podcast producer who helps him to turn his findings into what is sure to be the next hit murder podcast. As Ben gets closer to solving the case, he finds more and more obstacles trying to keep him from getting the answers needed to solve the case and wrap up the podcast.
2 The Lovebirds (2020)
Netflix
The Lovebirds is a romantic comedy starring Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani. This Neflix movie tells the story of Leilani (Rae) and Jibran (Nanjiani), a married couple on an accidental action adventure. When the two accidentally witness a murder, they are sent running for their lives in a hilarious and twisty murder mystery. The Lovebirds was originally going to have a theatrical release in April 2020, but was released on Netflix because of the Coronavirus pandemic and theater closings.
1 Insecure (2016)
HBO Enterprises, Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Insecure, the show that made Issa Rae a household name, premiered on HBO Now in 2016 and became one of the most loved shows the network has ever released. Issa Rae plays Issa Dee, a young Black woman trying to balance her friendship with Molly (Yvonne Orji), her stagnant relationship with Lawrence (Jay Ellis), and a job she isn’t passionate about, while everyone around her seems to be finding themselves and growing. Since the success of the show, Issa Rae has created several other projects with the HBO team.
