Black And Bold: Celebrating TV's Game-Changing Creators

Nina Simone's powerful anthem, "To Be Young, Gifted and Black," encapsulates the weight placed on the shoulders of Black creatives and those who came before to stand in their greatness despite a world that fights their very existence every day. It is both a call to arms and a confidence boosting affirmation.

To be a young, gifted and Black artist in television means taking uniquely Black experiences and turning them into living, breathing macrocosms that touch every cornerstone of human and not-so-human existences: from comedies that make us laugh, think and cry, to sci-fi tales that stretch the limits of our imaginations, to dramas that underscore our humanity – flaws and all.

In celebration of Black History Month, TVLine is highlighting Black + Bold creatives who are changing the TV space for the better whether through redefining Blackness onscreen or creating space behind-the-scenes for others to tell their own impactful stories. We honor the impressive and necessary accomplishments of legendary creatives like Shonda Rhimes, who turned ABC into her own personal Shondaland with an ongoing lineup of #TGIT hits, and Tyler Perry, whose self-titled studio continues to churn out soapy and addictive melodramas that unapologetically refuse to center whiteness.

We're also putting the spotlight on rising creators like Morgan Cooper, whose forthcoming Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot flips the script on the Will Smith classic, and Natasha Rothwell, who's adding her own spin to a Jane Austen classic.

While we can't make February longer than it is, we can make the most of the 28 days in the month by featuring Black creators who are calling the shots and improving the television landscape. — Keisha Hatchett and Mekeisha Madden Toby

Notable Works: black-ish (creator), grown-ish (creator), mixed-ish (creator), #blackAF (creator), Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show (executive producer), America's Next Top Model (co-creator), The Game (writer/co-EP)

How He's Changing the Game: The powerhouse producer has created a multi-network franchise across ABC and Freeform with black-ish and its various spinoffs — and that empire could grow to four shows with the potential offshoot old-ish. In addition to exploring topical issues such as police brutality, Black hair and the importance of Juneteenth on the aforementioned sitcoms, Barris has also become a hot commodity at Netflix: He signed a multi-year overall deal in 2018 with the streamer and continues to center the Black experience in his projects. Since partnering with Netflix, Barris has created #blackAF, a comedy about what it means to be a "new money" Black family, starring the EP as a fictionalized version of himself. Additionally, he executive-produced the sketch comedy Astronomy Club, featuring the Upright Citizens Brigade's first all-Black team.

Notable Works: Living Single (creator/executive producer), A Different World (producer), Hangin' With Mr. Cooper (producer), The Wayans Bros. (executive consultant), For Your Love (executive producer), Half & Half (executive producer), black-ish (consulting producer), Dear White People (executive producer)

How She's Changing the Game: The first Black woman to develop her own series continues to blaze a trail in Hollywood through her deal with Lionsgate TV, the studio behind her justly lauded Netflix adaptation of the 2014 feature Dear White People (ending this year with Season 4). Next up is the Starz comedy Run the World, which sounds a little like Living Single Part 2, in that it follows the trials and triumphs of a group of African-American girlfriends, but this trio's based in Harlem instead of Brooklyn. And the mover and shaker has never stopped opening doors: The Writers Guild of America training program she's co-run boasts such alumni as black-ish's Kenya Barris and The Chi's Lena Waithe. "I hope we get to a place where people aren't just seeing us as diversity hires because they need that one 'blaxpert' in the room," she told Shondaland.com. "That's the next level of progress I'm looking forward to." So are we all.

Notable Works: Girlfriends (creator), The Game (creator), Being Mary Jane (creator), Love Is__ (co-creator), Black Lightning (executive producer), The Jamie Foxx Show (supervising producer/writer), Moesha (producer/writer)

How She's Changing the Game: Brock Akil has spent most of her career amplifying Black voices, particularly through a female lens on creations like Girlfriends and Being Mary Jane, the latter of which was BET's first hourlong drama series. As she remains an executive producer on The CW's Black Lightning — which will wrap with Season 4 later this year — Brock Akil has signed a multi-year overall deal to create original content at Netflix, a streamer that has reaffirmed its commitment to diversity both in front of and behind the camera. "I'm excited to have a home that allows me the creative freedom and support to do what I do best: paint portraits and murals of women, Black people and anyone else whose story is missing from this golden age of television," Brock Akil said upon signing with Netflix. "Representation matters and so does who you build with."

Notable Works: Pose (co-creator/executive producer/director/writer)

How He's Changing the Game: Three years after breaking ground with FX's Emmy Award-winning drama Pose — which features the largest cast of transgender actors in TV history — Canals continues to develop projects that highlight the struggles and perseverance of marginalized communities under his new deal with 20th Century Fox TV. As a part of that deal, he's developing FX's 81 Words, a miniseries that tells the true story of gay activists who worked with a group of closeted psychiatrists to challenge the American Psychiatric Association's definition of homosexuality in the 1970s. Canals, through his Story Ave. Productions, is also writing and executive-producing ABC's In the End, a diverse drama about a woman who embraces death by becoming an end-of-life doula.

Notable Works: Hair Love (director), The Last O.G. (producer), Almost Home (executive producer), Almost 30 (executive producer)

How He's Changing the Game: After receiving an Academy Award for his 2019 short, Hair Love (and breaking the Kickstarter record for the most funds raised for a short film), Cherry sold a 12-episode season of Young Love, an animated sequel series based on the short's characters, to HBO Max. The series will further explore the dynamics of the Youngs, a Black millennial family struggling to juggle careers, marriage, parenthood, social issues and more, all while trying to make a better life for themselves. In addition to his work listed above, Cherry has directed episodes of The Unicorn, black-ish, mixed-ish and Saved by the Bell, placing his stamp on TV well before he landed a first-look deal with Warner Bros. Television in June 2020.

Notable Works: Chewing Gum (star/creator/executive producer/writer), I May Destroy You (star/creator/executive producer/writer/co-director)

How She's Changing the Game: Coel's rejection of a million-dollar Netflix deal for her semi-autobiographical drama, I May Destroy You, has become a thing of legend. That's in part because the streamer helped turn the British-born Ghanaian into a star when it domestically distributed her critically acclaimed comedy, Chewing Gum; Coel even nabbed a BAFTA for her performance. However, when Netflix refused to give Coel her requested percentage of the copyright, she took the 12-episode I May Destroy You to the BBC, which honored her ask and partnered with HBO to broadcast the 2020 series Stateside. In turn, critics and fans heralded I May Destroy You as touching and fearless. Like her character Arabella, Coel is a sexual assault survivor whose drink was spiked. But through therapy and writing, this gifted creator says she has begun to heal and help other survivors. "Part of my heart hopes that people who have had experiences that are traumatic, watch this and feel less alone," Coel told Screendaily.com. With so much creative and narrative prowess, Coel's next career move will undoubtedly be just as legendary.

Notable Works: NFL Networks' NFL Undiscovered (cinematographer), various short films (cinematographer/writer/director)

How He's Changing the Game: Cooper's world was flipped, turned upside down in March 2019, when Bel-Air, the trailer for his "reinterpretation" of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, grabbed a lot of attention — including from Will Smith himself, who hailed the dramatic spin on the sitcom as no less than "brilliant." (Watch the trailer here.) A year-and-a-half later, Peacock in a competitive bidding situation gave Bel-Air a two-season order, with Cooper attached to direct as well as co-write with showrunner Chris Collins. Recalling the catalyst for Bel-Air, for which he shot Kansas City as Philadelphia (and cast it almost entirely with locals, save for Will's portrayer, Jerry Madison Jr.), Cooper told Okayplayer in 2019, "Growing up, I always thought there was more... behind the sitcom format. I thought, 'Wow, we could take this story and ground it in a really dramatic way.'" Though at that time he was reveling only in buzz for a trailer, he avowed, "I'm very excited for everything that has happened and receive it humbly. But at the end of the day I'm a Black creative, and representing my culture and expressing myself authentically is of the utmost importance to me."

Notable Works: Queen Sugar (creator), 13th (co-producer/director/co-writer), When They See Us (creator), The Red Line (executive producer), Cherish the Day (creator), The White Tiger (executive producer)

How She's Changing the Game: Flipping the script on the small screen in a big way, this two-time Emmy winner is tirelessly developing evocative programming that doesn't just shine a spotlight on people of color, it invites audiences of all backgrounds to walk a mile in their shoes. Take, for instance, Home Sweet Home, the life-swapping social experiment she's set to conduct at NBC. Or Sovereign, the Native-American family drama she's developing at the network with co-EPs from the Cheyenne and Mescalero Apache Tribal Nations. At Netflix, she's bringing to life Colin in Black & White, a limited series that'll chronicle former 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick's transformation from teenage athlete to activist. With HBO Max's DMZ and The CW's Naomi, both of which feature protagonists of color, she's even rewriting the (comic) book on heroes.

Notable Works: Atlanta (creator/executive producer/star), Guava Island (co-writer/star), Community (star), 30 Rock (writer)

How He's Changing the Game: Rising through the sitcom ranks as a writer on 30 Rock and a cast member on Community, Glover went on to break the sitcom mold with FX's Atlanta, a genre-defying portrait of a young Black man trying to make a name for himself by managing his cousin's budding rap career. Glover created, writes and stars in the wildly imaginative Emmy-winning comedy, using surreal humor to shed light on tough topics like police brutality and racial profiling without relying on stereotypes. After a lengthy layoff, Season 3 of Atlanta is finally due to air later this year... and we can't wait to see what surprises Glover has in store for us next.

Notable Works: P-Valley (creator)

How She's Changing the Game: The playwright's debut series, which centers around exotic dancers at a Mississippi gentlemen's club, premiered to overwhelmingly positive reviews last July, before quickly earning a Season 2 renewal. But more importantly, Hall's Starz drama shines a light on a diverse community of women in a region of America not often depicted on TV, let alone with the level of respect and authenticity that P-Valley achieves. In steeping the show in African-American Vernacular English — "I feel like it's a way to preserve our culture," Hall told TVLine — she also breaks traditional genre conventions with the creation of what she calls "Delta Noir," and brings an underrepresented point of view to the small screen with thoughtfully detailed realism.

Notable Works: The Underground Railroad (writer/director/executive producer), Dear White People (director)

How He's Changing the Game: With Oscar-winning films like Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk, Jenkins has proven he's a master at bringing Black experiences to vivid life on screen. Now he's taking his prodigious filmmaking talents to TV with Amazon Prime's upcoming adaptation of The Underground Railroad, an alt-history novel that replaces the metaphorical path to freedom for enslaved Black people in the American South with a literal railroad system of trains and tunnels. We've only seen a few glimpses of the show so far, but Jenkins' stunning eye for detail and empathetic character work are on full display, backed by a cast led by William Jackson Harper, Joel Edgerton and Lily Rabe. If anyone can do justice to this story on the small screen, it's Jenkins.

Notable Works: Power (creator/executive producers) and spinoffs Book II: Ghost, Book III: Raising Kanan, Book IV: Influence and Book V: Force (co-creators/executive producers)

How They're Changing the Game: This ultra-talented duo put Starz on the map with Power, the provocative crime drama about a successful businessman trying to cut ties to the streets. The show's record-breaking success — it's Starz's most-watched series to date — brought a strong Black audience to the network and busted the door wide open for other Black creators like P-Valley's Katori Hall. The dynamic pair is building a TV empire with not one but four Power spinoffs: Book II: Ghost, centered on Ghost's son Tariq (and renewed for Season 2); Book III: Raising Kanan, a prequel set during the titular character's youth (premiering Summer 2021); Book IV: Influence, which follows Rashad Tate's quest for political power (ordered to series); and Book V: Force, a sequel about Tommy Egan's adventures in Los Angeles (ordered to series). Kemp, who signed a multi-year deal with Lionsgate (the studio behind Power) continues her masterful storytelling in Power Book II, serving as the showrunner and head writer. Meanwhile Jackson, who inked a multi-series deal with Starz, has several new shows in the pipeline including the crime drama Black Family Mafia and the soapy drama Intercepted, starring Power alum La La Anthony.

Notable Works: One Night in Miami (director/producer), Being Mary Jane (director), Scandal (director), Insecure (director) Southland (co-star/director)

How She's Changing the Game: King has ruled the screen for decades with head-turning roles such as Watchmen's masked vigilante Sister Night and Tish's fierce mother Sharon in If Beale Street Could Talk — the latter earning her the 2019 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. However, the illustrious actress has also built a strong legacy behind the camera, directing top-tier episodes of hit shows like Scandal, Being Mary Jane, This Is Us and Insecure. Thus far this year, King has reached a new creative high with her feature directorial debut One Night in Miami, a mesmerizing adaptation of Kemp Powers' play that unpacks a fictional meeting between Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke and Malcolm X. It is already garnering Oscar buzz and earned King a Golden Globe directing nod. With a Netflix deal under her belt — she is set to produce film and TV projects through her Royal Ties production company — King continues to defy industry expectations while creating her own seat at the table.

Notable Works: Underground (executive producers/music supervisor), Rhythm + Flow (executive producers), Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (cast/executive producers), Sherman's Showcase (cast/executive producers)

How They're Changing the Game: Legend — who made history in 2018 as the first Black man to become an EGOT winner — partnered with Jackson and Ty Stiklorius back in 2012 to found Get Lifted Film Co., a production house that has prioritized diverse storytelling since its launch. In addition to series like WGN America's Underground and IFC's Sherman's Showcase, Get Lifted was also behind the 2020 Netflix holiday film Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, which featured a predominantly Black cast and marked the production company's most expensive project to date. "It's amazing to be part of something that's really this huge, with this budget, for original content by a Black writer and director, with an all-Black cast and Black producers," Legend told IndieWire last February. Looking ahead, Get Lifted has signed a three-year overall deal with ABC Studios, under which the company will develop scripted television across all platforms; first up is a series adaptation of Goldie Taylor's novel Paper Gods, which will star Nia Long.

Notable Works: Pose (director/writer/producer), Hollywood (director/writer/producer), The Politician (director)

How She's Changing the Game: After signing a three-year deal with Netflix granting the streamer exclusive rights to her upcoming series, Mock became the first openly transgender woman to secure a deal with a major content provider. Equally groundbreaking, she also became the first-ever trans woman of color hired as a TV writer when she joined Ryan Murphy's FX drama Pose. Through her landmark positioning at one of the biggest streamers in the biz, Mock is breaking down doors for communities that have been historically ignored by Hollywood. "As someone who grew up in front of the TV screen, whether that was watching talk shows or family sitcoms or VHS films, I never thought that I would be embraced," Mock told Variety. "And more than embraced. Given not just a seat at the table but a table of my own making."

Notable Works: Being Mary Jane (executive producer), Roots (executive producer), Bigger (executive producer), Ready to Love (executive producer), Wendy Williams: The Movie (executive producer), Central Ave. (executive producer)

How He's Changing the Game: Although Packer is arguably best known for exec-producing big-screen comedy smashes such as Girls Trip and Ride Along, the Florida native and proprietor of Will Packer Productions has been quietly expanding his TV empire over the past decade. The most notable instance is as co-creator of Bounce TV, a 24/7 digital network that caters exclusively to an African-American audience. In addition to Lifetime's recent Wendy Williams biopic, Packer's 2021 to-do list includes developing a series adaptation of Sheri Booker's celebrated 2014 memoir, Nine Years Under: Coming of Age in an Inner-City Funeral Home.

Notable Works: Key & Peele (co-creator/co-star/executive producer), The Last O.G. (co-creator/executive producer), Weird City (co-creator/executive producer), Lorena (executive producer), The Twilight Zone (executive producer/co-star), Hunters (executive producer), Lovecraft Country (executive producer)

How He's Changing the Game: The multi-hyphenate is most commonly associated with his film work. That's because Peele directed, wrote and produced horror sensations Get Out (which earned him an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, becoming the first Black screenwriter to win in that category) and Us (which currently holds the title for third-best opening weekend ever for a horror film). But his TV resume is nothing to squawk at. After his Emmy-winning turn as one-half of Comedy Central's Key & Peele, he went on to co-create TBS' The Last O.G. and the YouTube anthology Weird City. He is currently involved with three more high-profile series: Amazon Prime's Nazi-fighting crime drama Hunters, starring Al Pacino; HBO's revered Lovecraft Country, which follows members of a Black, sci-fi-steeped family in Jim Crow-era America; and CBS All Access' Twilight Zone revival, which has tackled such issues as racism and immigration during its first two seasons.

Notable Works: Tyler Perry's House of Payne (creator), The Haves and the Have Nots (creator), Love Thy Neighbor (creator), If Loving You Is Wrong (creator), The Oval (creator), Sistas (creator), Tyler Perry's Young Dylan (creator)

How He's Changing the Game: The first African-American to outright own his own movie studio, Perry isn't just cranking out entertainment faster than we can write about it; he's also evolving the very face of entertainment via the ViacomCBS deal that saw him help launch the BET+ platform as his new shows' luxe home. Thus far, Perry's premiered his Oval offshoot Ruthless, which follows Melissa L. Williams' acolyte ever deeper into the Rakudushi cult; the comedy Bruh, which is sorta like Sex and the City if you replace the gal pals with Black men; and Tyler Perry's Assisted Living, a sitcom in which David and Pamela Mann reprise their Meet the Browns roles. "My audience and the stories that I tell are African-American stories specific to a certain audience," he told CBS This Morning, "and we speak a certain language." One in which, hit after hit, he's making us all familiar, if not fluent.

Notable Works: Insecure (star/co-creator/executive producer/writer), A Black Lady Sketch Show (executive producer), The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl (star/creator/executive producer/writer)

How She's Changing the Game: Rae didn't wait for Hollywood to discover her. The Stanford University grad wrote, created and starred in her own award-winning web series, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, and soon enough, the industry came calling. In many ways, Rae's web series was the template for Insecure, the Emmy-nominated HBO comedy she stars in and created with Larry Wilmore in 2016. But the offshoot has far surpassed the original by exploring and centering the warm and affirming friendship between two dark-skinned Black women in South Los Angeles. Insecure, which is entering its fifth and final season later this year, has also spotlighted the behind-the-scenes talent of others including EP, showrunner and writer Prentice Penny, EP and director Melina Matsoukas, and writer and supervising producer Natasha Rothwell. And Rae, who has also starred in numerous big-screen rom-coms, is just getting started. Her production company, Hoorae, helped launch the Emmy-nominated A Black Lady Sketch Show and the docuseries Seen & Heard, both on HBO, and will birth the half-hour comedy Rap Sh*t for HBO Max.

Notable Works: Grey's Anatomy (creator), Private Practice (creator), Scandal (creator), How to Get Away With Murder (executive producer), Station 19 (executive producer), Bridgerton (executive producer)

How She's Changing the Game: After turning ABC into Shondaland with her long-running slate of TGIT hits, Rhimes left the network in 2017 to create content exclusively for Netflix, a streaming service that has made it a point to look at every decision through an "inclusion lens." Out of the gate, she scored with Chris Van Dusen's adaptation of Julia Quinn's Bridgerton novels, casting Regé-Jean Page as the Duke and reimagining London's social scene circa 1813 as a blessedly more diverse party circuit than it was. Among the half-dozen other projects that Rhimes has in the pipeline are The Warmth of Other Suns, based on Isabel Wilkerson's decades-spanning book about African-Americans fleeing the Jim Crow South, and Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change, based on Ellen Pao's memoir about her attempts to dismantle Silicon Valley's old boys' club.

Notable Works: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (writers on Emmy-nominated staff), The Last O.G. (consulting producers), South Side (creators), Sherman's Showcase (creators/cast)

How They're Changing the Game: Friends since their college days at Harvard, Riddle and Salahuddin already have proven their ability to create viral sensations: They co-wrote Fallon's "Slow Jam the News" with President Barack Obama and "History of Rap" featuring Justin Timberlake. Riddle and Salahuddin also explore specifically Black issues by way of wonderfully distinct characters, as they did with South Side (Season 2 will move from Comedy Central to buzzy HBO Max). Now empowered by a multi-year deal with Warner Bros. TV to create, develop and produce projects in a wide range of genres, it's no less than thrilling to anticipate their future fare. "We look forward to creating everything from broadcast sitcoms to daring streaming content; from animation to genre, and yes, two comic book nerds like ourselves are over-the-moon about developing projects in the DC Universe," the duo said last fall. "It is also our plan to support fresh, new voices and help their ideas take shape with WBTV's experienced team."

Notable Works: Saturday Night Live (writer), Insecure (co-star/writer/supervising producer)

How She's Changing the Game: With Insecure heading into its final season, the multi-hyphenate is wasting no time filling her professional dance card. In addition to the in-the-works Comedy Central animated comedy Malltown (in which she will star and serve as EP), Rothwell has partnered with Snowfall scribe Aziza Barnes. The pair is adapting Ibi Zoboi's novel Pride for a coming-of-age drama at HBO (where Rothwell has an overall deal) about a Haitian-Dominican teenage girl, billed as a "timely update" of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. "For me, the types of projects that I'm interested in... play with gravity and levity at the same time," she told The Cut earlier this year. "It'll have that grounded, emotional ethos, punctuated with hard moments of comedy. I want to find projects that have something to say, that are additive to the conversation."

Notable Works: The Amber Ruffin Show (host/executive producer/co-writer), Late Night With Seth Meyers (writer), A Black Lady Sketch Show (writer), Detroiters (writer)

How She's Changing the Game: Given Ruffin's meteoric rise as one of late-night TV's most prominent voices (reaffirmed by her powerful retelling of a personal experience with a racist police officer), it only made sense for Peacock to give the Seth Meyers scribe her own self-titled talk show. Billed as a "topical late-night show with just the good parts — the comedy," The Amber Ruffin Show carries on the comedian's tradition of addressing and lampooning current events. Segments range from "Listen to a Black Woman" and the all-too-real COVID anthem "I Wanna Kill You This Christmas." An instant holiday classic.

Notable Works: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion (executive producers), Red Table Talk (executive producers), Cobra Kai (executive producers)

How They're Changing the Game: The mission statement of this power couple's media company is simple yet bold: "to be the leader in global entertainment." And with Westbrook Inc.'s current and future slate of projects, the Smiths are on their way to doing just that on the small screen, often with a focus on speaking to the Black experience. Red Table Talk, a multi-generational Facebook Watch show that Pinkett Smith hosts with her daughter and mother, continues to provoke honest conversations about race and gender in America, along with a myriad of other topics. Meanwhile, HBO Max's Westbrook-produced The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion set a new standard for all future TV reunions. There's also Bel-Air, the gritty Fresh Prince reboot being developed for Peacock, which promises to "dive deeper into the inherent conflicts, emotions and biases that were impossible to fully explore in a 30-minute sitcom," according to its official synopsis. And Westbrook is officially going international in 2021, partnering with Israeli production firm Tedy Productions to develop globally oriented scripted and unscripted programming.

Notable Works: Empire (co-executive producer)

How He's Changing the Game: We're pretty sure Spellman didn't sleep in 2020, given that he has three buzzy, high-profile projects set to premiere in the months ahead. First up is FX's Hip Hop Uncovered (premiering Feb. 12), a six-part docuseries about that musical genre's power brokers and America's fascination with/fear of the street culture from which hip hop grew. He's also head writer and executive producer on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Disney+'s highly anticipated Marvel series (premiering March 19) about the interracial superhero duo. Finally, he's executive-producing Apple TV+'s Truth Be Told, Season 2 of which we can expect later this year. Meanwhile, in order to keep making projects that are culturally diverse but super appealing, Spellman and wife Nichelle Tramble Spellman recently founded The 51, a production company that champions diverse voices.

Notable Works: A Black Lady Sketch Show (creator/star/executive producer), The Rundown with Robin Thede (creator/host/executive producer), The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore (head writer), The Queen Latifah Show (head writer)

How She's Changing the Game: Thede is the driving force behind HBO's A Black Lady Sketch Show — the uproariously funny comedy series, going into Season 2, that has an all-Black, all-female writers' room and cast and Insecure's Issa Rae as one of its executive producers. Her recent success (A Black Lady Sketch Show nabbed multiple Emmy nominations) builds off a career of advocating for herself, as well as creators like her, in Hollywood. "What I do has always been at the forefront of pushing Black women and people of color forward," Thede recently told our sister site Variety. "I've been doing that for years, and I think everyone's catching up — not to me, but overall." Expect to see her continue that mission with her ongoing deal with Warner Bros. Television and the upcoming Michael B. Jordan HBO Max feature film Fashionably Black, which Thede co-wrote.

Notable Works: Race in America: Our Vote Counts (executive producers), Race in America: A Movement Not a Moment (executive producers)

How They're Changing the Game: In 2020, Toran (a former EP on The Real Housewives of New Jersey) teamed up with former Bravo exec Farrell to launch Lauren Grace Media. Their goal? "We want to tell the rainbow of storytelling," Toran recently told Forbes. To that end, the dynamic duo is currently developing original programming across several genres, including unscripted docuseries, lifestyle and true crime. They also have in the pipeline Model Misses, a doc about a quartet of transgender women from the Bronx. As Farrell noted to Forbes, "We believe what will set us apart is that we are taking stories and looking at them from different perspectives."

Notable Works: Master of None (writer/costar), The Chi (creator), Boomerang (executive producer), Twenties (executive producer)

How She's Changing the Game: Waithe has consistently used her platform to tell stories that represent the Black LGBTQIA community. She broke new ground in 2017 as the first Black woman to win a Primetime Emmy for comedy writing as co-writer of Master of None's acclaimed "Thanksgiving" episode, which chronicled Denise's coming-out journey. She then went on to create the Showtime drama The Chi, a coming-of-age tale set in Chicago's South Side that features prominent lesbian, bisexual and transgender characters; and the BET comedy Twenties, which places a queer Black girl at the center of its ensemble. Waithe also serves as an executive producer on BET's Boomerang adaptation (alongside original film star Halle Barry), as well as the upcoming horror anthology Them: Covenant, the latter of which received a two-season order at Amazon Prime.