First Look: Insecure

Awkward Black Girls Shine in This HBO Series.

- Britni Danielle

Issa Rae can hardly contain her emotions about her new HBO comedy, Insecure, which she created with comedian and writer extraordinaire Larry Wilmore.

“I’m excited, I’m anxious, I’m scared,” the 31-year-old writer, producer and actress admits.

Rae, who first bum-rushed pop culture with her award-winning Web series, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, in 2011, is one of Hollywood’s most promising voices. Instead of basking in the positive hype around Insecure, Rae is focused on getting the series in front of audiences. “I just want people to see it,” she explains. “We’re telling a lot of stories that haven’t been told.”

In Insecure, Issa Dee (Rae), is struggling to make sense of her life. She works for an educational nonprofit—a job that isn’t quite her passion—aimed at helping inner-city youth; her longtime boyfriend, Lawrence, is kind of a loser; and the only thing that’s really working is her friendship with BFF Molly.

While several TV critics have likened the show to Lena Dunham’s HBO series, Girls—a comedy about four, 20-something White women living in New York City—Rae is over the comparisons.