Lena Waithe
Waithe at the 2018WonderCon
Born	(1984-05-17)May 17, 1984 (age 41) Chicago,Illinois, U.S.
Education	Columbia College Chicago (BFA)
Occupations	Actress producer screenwriter
Years active	2007–present
Spouse	Alana Mayo ​ ​ (m. 2019; div. 2021)​

Lena Waithe (/weɪθ/;^[1] born May 17, 1984)^[2][3] is an American actress, producer, and screenwriter. She is the creator of theShowtime drama seriesThe Chi (2018–present) and theBET comedy seriesBoomerang (2019–20) andTwenties (2020–21). She also wrote and produced thecrime filmQueen & Slim (2019) and is the executive producer of thehorroranthology seriesThem (2021–present).

Waithe gained recognition for her role in theNetflix comedy-drama seriesMaster of None (2015–2021), and became the first African-American woman to win thePrimetime Emmy Award forOutstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in2017 for writing the show's "Thanksgiving" episode, which was loosely based on her personal experience ofcoming out to her mother. She has also appeared inSteven Spielberg's 2018adventure filmReady Player One and theHBO seriesWestworld. In 2023, she received a nomination forBest Play at the76th Tony Awards, her production work on the sketch-comedy playAin't No Mo'.

Waithe was named one ofTime magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018;^[4] and was included onFast Company's Queer 50 list in 2021 and 2022.^[5][6]

Waithe was born inChicago,Illinois.^[7][8] Her father, Lawrence David Waithe, died when she was 15.^[9] Her paternal great-grandfather, Winston Waithe, emigrated fromBarbados to Boston in 1921; his family, descended from enslaved people on sugar plantations, was fromChrist Church, Barbados.^[9] Though acting was not originally among her ambitions,^[10][11] she knew from the age of seven that she wanted to be a television writer and received strong family support for her writing from her single mother and grandmother.^[12] Her parents had divorced when she was 3.^[13] Waithe and her sister grew up on theSouth Side of Chicago until Waithe was 12; she attended a local, mostly African-American elementarymagnet school, Turner-Drew,^[14] but moved to Evanston and finished middle school at Chute Middle School.^[15] She graduated fromEvanston Township High School and earned a degree in cinema and television arts^[16] fromColumbia College Chicago in 2006,^[17][11][18] praising faculty playwright Michael Fry for his teaching and encouragement.^[18][19] Seeking more ways to involve herself in the television and film industry, she also worked at a movie theater, at aBest Buy, and at aBlockbuster.^[20]

Having arrived in Los Angeles, Waithe secured a job as an assistant to the executive producer ofGirlfriends, a long-running sitcom.^[20] Soon after, she landed a minor role in Lisa Kudrow'sThe Comeback.^[20] She later became a writer for theFox television seriesBones,^[10] a writer for the 2012Nickelodeon sitcomHow to Rock, and a producer on the 2014 satirical comedy filmDear White People.^[21] Waithe wrote and appeared in the YouTube series "Twenties", produced byFlavor Unit Entertainment and optioned in 2014 byBET.^[22][23] In addition to writing and directing the short film "Save Me", which was shown at several independent film festivals,^[24] Waithe wrote the 2013 web series "Hello Cupid" and the 2011 viral videoShit Black Girls Say.^[21]

In 2014,Variety named Waithe one of its "10 Comedians to Watch".^[22] In August 2015,Showtime commissioned a pilot for an upcoming series,The Chi, written by Waithe and produced byCommon, which tells a young urban Black-American man's coming-of-age story.^[25] As the show's creator, Waithe wanted to mine her experience growing up on the South Side and experiencing its diversity to craft a story that paints a more nuanced portrait of her hometown than is typically shown.^[26] Similarly, she extended her influence to support the Black-American community in the entertainment industry through her role as co-chair of the Committee of Black Writers at the Writers Guild.^[15]

In 2015, Waithe was cast in theNetflix seriesMaster of None after meeting creator and lead actorAziz Ansari who, withAlan Yang, had originally written Denise as a straight, white woman with the potential, according to Waithe, to evolve into one of the main character's love interests: "For some reason, [casting director]Allison Jones thought about me for it, a Black gay woman."^[12] Ansari and Yang rewrote the script to make the character more like Waithe: "All of us actors play heightened versions of ourselves."^[12] She said, "I don't know if we've seen a sly, harem pants-wearing, coolTopshop sweatshirt-wearing, snapback hat-rocking lesbian on TV."^[10] She also said, "I know how many women I see out in the world who are very much like myself. We exist. To me, the visibility of it was what was going to be so important and so exciting."^[10]

In 2017, Waithe and Ansari won thePrimetime Emmy Award forOutstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the season 2 episode "Thanksgiving".^[27] She became the first African-American woman to win an Emmy in that category.^[27][28][29] Waithe described the episode as based on hercoming out experience as alesbian.^[30] During her Emmy speech, she sent a special message to her LGBTQIA (Lesbian,Gay,Bisexual,Transgender,Queer,Intersex, andAsexual)^[31] family discussing how "The things that make us different—those are our superpowers."^[32] She ended her speech by recognizing her journey as a Black woman, saying, "Thank you for embracing a little Indian boy fromSouth Carolina and a little queer Black girl from theSouth Side of Chicago."^[33] Waithe also developed an autobiographical drama series,The Chi.^[34][35]Out Magazine named Waithe the Out100: Artist of the Year on November 8, 2017.^[36]

Since 2018, Waithe has provided the voiceover of the tagline ofAT&T commercials.^[37] The same year, she became the first Black queer woman since November 2003 to be featured on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine.^[38] Waithe also founded her production company, Hillman Grad Productions.^{[citation needed]}

Waithe wrote and produced the road trip-crime filmQueen & Slim, starringJodie Turner-Smith andDaniel Kaluuya, and directed byMelina Matsoukas. It was released on November 27, 2019, byUniversal Pictures.^[39] This film focuses on powerful social issues such as systemic racism,police brutality and oppression. It has been depicted as a “a meditation on a system of justice that treats innocent people as outlaws,” or “a bourgeois representation of the struggle against police oppression."^[40] Queen & Slim won a BET Award for Best Movie (2020), Florida Film Critics Circle Award (2019) as well as other awards.^[41]

In 2020, Waithe lent her voice to thePixar animated filmOnward, portraying the cyclops police officer Specter, the first queer animated character in Disney history.^[42]

She focuses on recruiting more people of color and queer artists for her film and television projects.^[43] In 2020 her production company, Hillman Grad Productions, opened a mentoring and training program^[44] with financial support from the Froneri ice-cream company.^[45] More recently, she signed a deal with the Warner Bros. TV Group in order to develop a TV version ofHoop Dreams.^[46]

Waithe became engaged in 2017 toAlana Mayo,^[47][48] a content executive. They married in 2019 inSan Francisco.^[49] On January 23, 2020, Waithe and Mayo announced that they had separated after two months of marriage.^[50] In November 2020, Mayo filed for divorce from Waithe; the divorce was finalized by agreement on May 24, 2021.^[51] Waithe's relationship with English actressCynthia Erivo was confirmed in 2024.^[52][53]

Waithe has described her family as "lazyChristians" and said in 2018, "I'm a huge believer inGod, andJesus Christ, and that God made me and all those things. And I try to just be a good person. I think that is the base of my religion, is to be good, is to be honest."^[54]

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