Waithe gained recognition for her role in the Netflix comedy-drama series Master of None β , and became the first African-American woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in for writing the show's " Thanksgiving " episode, which was loosely based on her personal experience of coming out to her mother. Waithe was named one of Time magazine's Most Influential People of ; [ 4 ] and was included on Fast Company 's Queer 50 list in and Waithe was born in Chicago , Illinois.
Having arrived in Los Angeles, Waithe secured a job as an assistant to the executive producer of Girlfriends , a long-running sitcom. In , Variety named Waithe one of its "10 Comedians to Watch". In , Waithe was cast in the Netflix series Master of None after meeting creator and lead actor Aziz Ansari who, with Alan 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.
We exist. To me, the visibility of it was what was going to be so important and so exciting. It was released on November 27, , by Universal Pictures. In , Waithe lent her voice to the Pixar animated film Onward , portraying the cyclops police officer Specter, the first queer animated character in Disney history. She focuses on recruiting more people of color and queer artists for her film and television projects. Waithe became engaged in to Alana Mayo , [ 47 ] [ 48 ] a content executive.
They married in in San Francisco. Waithe has described her family as "lazy Christians " and said in , "I'm a huge believer in God , and Jesus 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. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item.
American actress, producer and screenwriter born Waithe at the WonderCon. Chicago , Illinois , U. Alana Mayo. Early life and education [ edit ]. Career [ edit ]. Personal life [ edit ]. Filmography [ edit ]. Film [ edit ]. Television [ edit ]. Actress [ edit ]. Writer [ edit ]. Producer [ edit ]. Awards and nominations [ edit ].
