Quinta on Top

To call 32-year-old Quinta Brunson-creator, executive producer, writer, and star of massively popular Emmy-winning series Abbott Elementary-the hardest-working woman in Hollywood somehow still feels like an understatement. More accurate: the hardest-working and the most fun.

- By Patrice Peck. Photographs by Danny Kasirye

Was she the one that yelled about the fight?" Quinta asks, racking her brain. "I can't remember." I've just told her that my adorable neighbor Zion played a student in the debut episode of Abbott Elementary, and Quinta is committed to pulling Zion's last name from the recesses of her mind. Not that I'd expect her to remember it-after all, this is a woman who oversees hundreds of cast and crew members on any given day, whose hit show is currently three Emmy wins and two record-breaking seasons into its run, and who has the massive responsibility of keeping our country laughing through whatever fresh hell the world brings next. Honestly, it's a minor miracle she's managed to squeeze me in today at all, even if she's already multitasking: At this moment, she's getting ready to head to set, a plush towel swaddling her freshly (finally!) washed natural hair, when...boom. "Broadnax!" Quinta laughs. "Zion Broadnax. I know my kids!"

Unlike folks who might've mistakenly equated the meteoric rise of a fresh Black face with overnight success, I first peeped Quinta's unstoppable grind way back in 2014, when my friends and I obsessed over her video series The Girl Who's Never Been on a Nice Date, aka "He got money!" And then again in her iconic BuzzFeed Video era. It was that specific moment in internet history when the rapidly growing media company's video series were truly inescapable, and her unique brand of humor was right at their core.