Ten years after appearing on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, Issa Rae has become an author, producer, entrepreneur and Peabody Trailblazer Award winner. At the Forbes Power Women’s Summit in 2024, she talked about a cautious Hollywood, the opportunities of the platforms where she began, and the businesses she has built around her stories.
Storyteller and maker
Of all her titles, Rae prefers writer-producer: being able to write something and then actually make it. She still carries a paper notebook for ideas. She started on YouTube, at a time when nobody was making series online for Black audiences, and says that if she were starting today she would probably be too intimidated, and would choose TikTok.
“Scared and clueless”
She stands by her remark that she has never seen Hollywood so scared and so dependent on Wall Street. Studios chase what they think audiences want, sequels, nostalgia, intellectual property, and avoid risk; she cites a study suggesting only about 10% of films are original. The push to find diverse voices after 2016 and 2020 has faded elsewhere, she says, but remains a priority for her company, Hoorae, which also gives second chances to people Hollywood has discarded.
After the strikes, Los Angeles is “pretty dark”: few productions, people moving home, shoots going abroad. Her team managed to film in the city a movie seven years in the making, from a first-time feature writer and director, starring SZA and Keke Palmer, but its success will decide whether that chance comes again.
An ecosystem of businesses
Her companies grew organically out of things she was already doing: a music supervision company and label, Raedio, born from her work on Insecure; a marketing arm; a rosé; the hair care brand Sienna Naturals, now on Sephora.com, whose curl cream she helped develop through about twelve formulas. Many names play on Rae, a tribute to her aunt, a visual artist who loved puns on their shared name. Her new jewellery line, Braeve, created with Kast Jewelry, grew from her own experience: as an introvert unsure she belonged in Hollywood rooms, jewellery became her armour.
Her advice to her younger self: stop comparing your journey with other people’s, focus on your work and keep doing it well.