Issa Rae gives Brandy credit for jumpstarting her TV writing career in a new interview with Jennifer Hudson.
While being a guest on Hudson’s self-taught talk show, the Insecure creator talked about how going to a taping of Moesha set her on her journey, saying that seeing Brandy portray a normal Black girl on TV was inspiring to her.
“You know the icon Brandy, Moesha. Since then, there hasn’t been…about a black teenage girl just killing [it], just an ordinary Black girl and her family, being a high schooler and I was in middle school when that show came out and to see her, this massive superstar play this ordinary Black girl,” she said.
She also said that winning a certain prize at the taping gave her the “blueprint” for writing scripts.
“I remember I got the opportunity to go to a live taping and I had just moved back to LA from Maryland,” she said. “…I was coming in with open eyes and I get to go to a live TV taping and see my hero and I won a script, a teleplay of that episode… That script was just the blueprint in front of me and I remember studying it every single day.”
“Making television felt so attainable,” she continued. “It was right there and I was in the audience, seeing it be done…It was such a thrilling experience and it was a core memory for me.”
Watch the full clip below.
