New Hollywood Podcast: Lena Waithe Talks ‘The Chi’, Being “Othered” And Reclaiming “Queer”

When Lena Waithe won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for her very personal coming out episode of Master of None titled “Thanksgiving” she not only made history as the first Black woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing but also made a soul-stirring speech where she said “The things that make us different are our superpowers.” She uses that inspirational truth in her life and work as she continues to slay the game with her numerous projects and she stopped by the New Hollywood Podcast to talk about all of it.

Master of None was a breakthrough for Waithe as a storyteller and actor. She went on to create the critically-acclaimed The Chi, stars in the upcoming Steven Spielberg adaptation of Ready Player One, and has the comedy Twenties in development at TBS.  She popped up in episodes of Transparent and This Is Us. Before that, she was writing for shows like Bones and served as a producer on Justin Simien’s feature Dear White People — which is now a Netflix series that she will recur on in season 2.

Listen to the episode below as she talks about her career trajectory, being a queer woman of color, reclaiming the word “queer”, and her ideal reboot for A Different World which involves a certain favorite from RuPaul’s Drag Race.