Tag Archives: Master of None

Lena Waithe Wants To Create A Primetime Show Where Lead Is Black, Queer And Female

Earlier this month, Lena Waithe became the first black woman to win the Emmy for Comedy Writing.

Following that epic win, she says she now plans to make a primetime show that focuses on a black, queer woman.

Talking to The Daily Beast, she explained.

We do still have a way to go. I want to create a show where a black gay woman is the lead, where she is the protagonist, she is the person whom we are following.

That is still yet to be done. I have faith. I hope we can make it happen, we still don’t have that. We don’t have a show where a queer brown male person is the lead.”

Waithe went on to explain that black woman such as Laverne Cox are helping to pave the way to her dream.

I think Doubt with Laverne Cox was a huge leap forward. Unfortunately, it was short-lived but it was still a notch on our belt. I think we need more of that. The world is ready. They are. Let my episode be an example. They’re ready for it.”

Waithe added that she’s sure she will have to do some “heavy lifting” to create something “a network can get behind” but hopefully it’ll make way for more diverse shows that celebrate people of colour and queer culture.

She added that she has already “writing something” but wouldn’t give a clue as to what the character, plot or setting would be.

All that stuff I can’t say. I’ll just say things are looking good and people should stay tuned.”

Lena Whaithe Makes History At The Emmys

Lena Whaithe became the first black woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing alongside Aziz Ansari for their Thanksgiving episode of Master of None — she’s also the first black woman to ever be nominated for the award.

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Thanksgiving follows Ansari and Waithe’s characters over decades as she comes out to her family and they gradually accept her.

Waithe also managed to make a heartfelt speech dedicated to the LGBTI community.

My LGBTQIA family, I see each and every one of you. The things that make us different — those are our superpowers. Every day when you walk out the door throw on your imaginary cape and go out there and conquer the world, because the world would not be as beautiful as it is if we weren’t in it.

And for everybody out there that showed us so much love for this episode, thank you for embracing a little Indian boy from South Carolina and a queer black girl from the heart of Chicago. We appreciate it more than you could ever know.’

In the press room, Waithe told reporters that her wish is for this historic win to embolden those in positions of power to offer opportunities to a more diverse pool of writers.

I hope it will open up people’s eyes to give women of color a seat at the table so they can tell their stories.”

It echoed comments she made in August while talking about her Emmy nomination during a GLAAD panel.

Waithe said it speaks to the fact the industry is progressing — but added that there’s still a long way to go, and mentorship is a big part of that evolution.

We still have a lot of work to do and I’m fighting to make sure that happens. I’m definitely really involved in mentorship … because the only way it’s going to actually change is for us to not just sort of talk about it, but to look people in the eye who say, ‘I want to be a writer,’ and go, ‘Okay, great. Give me your script. Let me take a look at it. Here’s how you can make it better,’ because, again, it’s a matter of greatness. It’s, like, you have to be great to get in there. I’m still striving for greatness, but I think the biggest thing is to make sure that people of color have some guidance and some mentorship to help them get to that place. Otherwise, they don’t get in those rooms. Or they get in the rooms and they fail. That’s problematic. So I’m just sort of actively trying to help make sure people have opportunities.”

Lena Waithe Captures How Family Dynamics Change When You Come Out In Master of None’s’Thanksgiving’

Master of None  is a Netflix original, which was created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang.

The show explores topics of love, heartbreak, race, sexuality and humour throughout the season but episode eight stands out by far.

Episode eight, Thanksgiving, fleshes out the story of Dev’s friend Denise, played by Lena Waithe, and shows how her family came to accept her sexuality over a series of dinners.

The episode is quietly epic. It starts with a young Dev and Denise in the 1990’s.

The pair begins to learn about minorities at the age of nine when Denise mistakes Dev for being black in front of her mother, Catherine, played by Angela Bassett.

The episode jumps forward to 1995 when Denise decides that she doesn’t like to wear dresses, then to 1999 when she comes out to Dev.

In 2006, Denise finally comes out to her family, which is made up of her mother, aunt and grandmother.

In 2015, the character brings a “friend” home for the celebrations but her family is less than friendly with Denise’s partner.

The following year a different partner joins Denise, Dev and her family for the holidays and it goes even worse.

Finally in the present day 2017, Denise returns with her first date and her family have reached a level of acceptance to her and her sexuality.

The episode is a rarity as it focuses on Denise’s coming out story as a black, queer woman.

The narrative is based on Waithe’s own experience with coming out – something that the star rarely talks about in the public domain because she never “intended to make it TV fodder”.

Yalking to BuzzFeed News, Waithe explained

I never felt the need to tell it. I’m a big fan of telling a story about queer people post-coming-out because the truth is we’re more than our coming-out story.”

However, she decided she would use the opportunity to tell her story after Ansari and Yang were inspired by it.

This will be the one and only time I do this. Let me do it right, let me knock it out the park, because I’m not going to tell that story again.”

“I think it’s revolutionary, honestly, because oftentimes queer women of colour are told to sit down and be quiet and not have a voice. So the fact that everyone has embraced mine, I think, is definitely a wonderful step in the right direction.”

The idea to tell the story of Denise over 30 years of Thanksgivings stemmed from Ansari’s brother and was directed by Melina Matsoukas who previously worked on videos for Beyoncé and Rhianna.

Matsoukas was chosen despite being considered a “rookie” in the television world so that she could portray the black female narrative with more authenticity.

She said of the script,

“I saw a terrific opportunity. I’d never seen a black woman come out on television before.”

The director added that she worked closely with Waithe throughout so it would stay true to her and her character, Denise.

Waithe added that she was overjoyed with the outcome of the show.

“It’s just sort of like very validating when a queer woman of colour speaks up and the audiences respond with a rousing round of applause. I think it’s a beautiful thing, I think it’s a celebration.”

10 Queer TV Shows You Should Be Binge Watching Now

What does one do when the nights start to get cooler and darker as Autumn starts setting in? Easy peasy, we catch up on all the episodes we’ve missed of our fave TV shows and binge watch them all from start to finish, or, we watch our favourite re-runs again and remind ourselves of the characters we loved a few moons ago.


1. Jessica Jones

Having just finished its  1st season, Jessica Jones features Marvels first super hero lesbian, Jeri Hogarth, who works alongside Jessica Jones as a private investigator. It’s received rave reviews for its queer inclusivity and sexual positivity. Plus, both women are total badasses and sexy as hell.

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2. Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries

This show will soon be approaching season 4 and tells the adventures of Phryne, a private investigator who is sassy and bold. It’s set in the 1920’s but the absolute lez delight is Doc, who Phryne often has to call upon to get her medical advice.

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3. Master of None

Master of none is just preparing to go into its 2nd season later this year, so now is the time to binge watch all the episodes that you’ve missed so far. The show tells the tale of young artists struggling to survive in a big city. Denise is character who is a woman of colour and openly gay and she’s super funny.

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4. Wentworth

The 4th season has just finished and oh how we sobbed at the finale, which we won’t tell you in case you haven’t watched it! There are a few lez characters in this series about life in a woman’s prison, the most prominent being Franky Doyle. However, we get a great treat in season 4 as a previous heterosexual character falls in love with a fellow inmate and explores her bisexual side.

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5. Orange is the New Black

This series is also based in a woman’s prison and has two prominent lez characters in it, Piper and Alex but again, other gay females pop up occasionally as well. It’s really funny and follows Pipers turbulent on/off relationship with Alex as well as explore how she adjusts to life behind bars.

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6. The L Word

The L word did more positivity for Lesbians than any other TV show to date. Who can forget falling in lust with the naughty Shane, or how we rooted that Bette and Tina would reconnect after all their problems? If you haven’t ever watched the L word then it’s a must, but if you have, recapture those glowing moments and feast on all 6 seasons again.

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7. Last Tango in Halifax

This British TV show is really funny and not only features a prominent Lesbian character but also examines love later on in life. An elderly couple once dated in the 1950’s and reconnect via social media and one of their daughters falls in love with a woman after dating men all her life. It’s definitely worth a second viewing or if you’ve never seen it before you’re in for a real treat.

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8. Pretty Little Liars

Well, Pretty Little Liars is now half way through Season 7 so now is your chance to catch up on everything you missed over the summer, or binge out on all the series and become an instant fan. There are many lesbian characters in the series and the lead character herself is gay. The show is smart, creepy and feminist and season 7 has to be one of the best yet.

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9. Lost Girl

Oh how we fell in lust with Bo, our favourite bisexual succubus ever known. OK, probably the only one we’ve ever known but this show was so fabulous that all 5 seasons deserves a re watch and if you have never watched it before its worth every hour of your viewing time.

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10. Bomb Girls

Bomb Girls only ran for 2 seasons but every episode was a complete gem. Set in Canada during World War 2 the story is about a group of women that work in a bomb making factory while their husbands are fighting in the war. One of the lead characters, Betty, is amazing as a semi butch lesbian who makes no qualms about what or who she is. This programme was just fabulous and deserves to be watched time and time again.

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Lena Waithe Talks The Importance Of Self-Love As A Black Gay Woman

Lena Waithe – Netflix’s Master of None as Aziz Ansari’s truth-talking friend, Denise – has shared a touching letter to her younger self about self acceptance, love, sex and being proud to be black and gay.

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In the Refinery29 video LoveMe, Wathie talks about why it’s important to have self-love as a black gay woman.

A big issue within the LGBT community is embracing oneself and not being ashamed. Especially among people of color, you still get those people who aren’t very open and who don’t want everybody to know. Within the Hollywood industry, you still have a lot of [Black] people who aren’t openly gay.

If you think of it, in terms of how many people there are in Black Hollywood, the numbers just don’t add up. There are way too few people who are out. It’s like that hashtag that’s going around, #oscarssowhite; I’d say #blackhollywoodsostraight.”

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She also shares the story of meeting her now partner (that dream woman she talks about in her video), Alana Mayo, who was straight-identified before meeting Lena, and how other people discuss her sexuality:

People will ask my girlfriend, ‘Alana, are you gay? Are you straight?’ For a second, she was trying to figure out, ‘Am I a lesbian?’ I was like, ‘No, I don’t think you should call yourself that, because a lesbian means you were born gay. I’m a lesbian.’ Then, she was like, ‘Am I bisexual?’

And I’m like, ‘Maybe?’ She was like, ‘You know what? I’m not going to label it. I’m just going to be myself.’ I think it’s interesting that we can say, ‘Look, sexuality is fluid and love is where you find it.’

 

Watch the video below:

‘Master of None’ is the Diverse Comedy Show of Your Dreams

Let’s not beat around the bush: Hollywood has a huge diversity problem. From whitewashing existing characters of colour and all-white cast ensembles, to shows that are tragically heterosexual, there are a lot of deep-rooted problems in Tinseltown.

But, helping to challenge that is Netflix.

And while the streaming service may not be able to ‘diversify’ the problem singlehandedly (nor should it embrace diversity solely for that reason), it’s a blessing for those who want their media content to more closely resembles and resonate with them.

Case in point: Master of None. After falling in love with Aziz Ansari as Tom Haverford on Parks and Recreation and with his various stand-up comedy specials, he has now co-written a half and hour comedy show for Netflix that focuses on, pretty much all of the things that may be relevant to you and your interests.

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A good example of that is the episode “Indians on TV” in which Aziz (as New York-based actor Dev) accidentally gets a racist email from a studio head prompting an insightful and very funny conversation about how television studios won’t put more than one minority in anything for fear of making it an ‘Indian show’ or a ‘black show’. It also touches upon the use of make up changing an actor’s ethnicity as we have white actors playing characters of colour (or even light-skinned people of colour playing those with darker skin, e.g Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone in the upcoming movie, Nina)

Another good shout is “Ladies and Gentleman” in which Dev’s girlfriend Rachel, his friend Denise (who is black and a lesbian) clue Dev and Arnold (another member of their friendship group) in on what’s it like to live in the world where men are constantly ignoring women or outright treating them badly.

And there’s the episode “Parents” where Dev and Brian take their parents to dinner to learn about their immigrant stories and how they came to America.

While these would be Very Special Episodes on any other show, with Master of None it feels organic and, well, normal.

As a woman and/or as a person of colour, these are absolutely conversations that have been had at some point and because they’re written with knowledge and empathy it doesn’t feel like you’re being sold a storyline by someone who typed ‘feminism’ or ‘immigration in the 1960s’ into Wikipedia.

Perhaps Master of None can lead to another conversation there, not just about seeing characters like yourself, telling stories you relate to, on TV but for studios to embrace that behind the camera too.

For example, just like in the show, Aziz’ parents (who play his parents in Master of None too) emigrated to the States from India and the fact that Denise is gay (a character whose sexuality, by the way, is an important part of her identity but is never played off for laughs) is because out writer and comic Lena Waithe told the team behind the show what she’s really like, stories of her life, and Aziz and Alan [Yang who co-wrote the show with him] asked “why shouldn’t [Denise] just be gay?’”

Overall, it’s a very funny show that’s highly relatable for about 501 reasons. All 10 episodes of Master of None are currently available on Netflix so go and watch that right now and cross your fingers that it gets another season.

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