While we are all preparing for our tear-jerking farewells to Insecure, Issa Rae — who helms the HBO hit series as executive producer, creator and star — is doing precisely what we expect of the comedic magnate: foraying into yet another project. This time, she’s teaming up with the internet’s endearing troll Jaboukie Young-White, mononymously known as Jaboukie, for an HBO series adaptation of Vanessa R. Panfil’s novel The Gang’s All Queer: The Lives Of Gay Gang Members.
For the untitled development of the half-hour series, Rae executive produces while Young-White lends his pen to the screenplay. According to AV Club, the show is set to explore how a closeted twenty-something Chicagoan ditches college to find reckless closure amidst grieving a gang-related death. Published in 2017, The Gang’s All Queer centered the interviews of gay gang members or criminally-involved men to explore the complexities of criminology’s hyper masculine portrayal of gang life and the oft-overlooked intersectionality of their identities. Moreover, the novel is vividly disrupts that narratives that gloss surfaced perceptions of gang members. Young-White executive produces with Rae and Montrel McKay for Hoorae (Rae’s media label under Warner Media) and Jonathan Berry, Olivia Gerke and Dave Becky for 3 Arts. Hoorae’s Sara Rastogi will serve as co-executive producer.
And if you haven’t been briefed on the never-ending bevy of projects, need we remind you that Rae is a sensation by all means and we’re absolutely here for her promising longevity both on screen and behind the scenes. Just last week, the 36-year-old announced that she would joining the Sony Pictures Animation’s upcoming sequel to Spider Man: Into the Spider Verse to star opposite Shameik Moore, whose reprising his portrayal of Myles Morales/Spider-Man, as Jessica Drew AKA Spider-Woman. In addition to this latest casting, her upcoming projects include a Baldwin Hills-inspired docuseries titled Sweet Life, an adaptation of the podcast Nice White Parents, an Italian-based dramedy Perfect Strangers (which she’ll appear in) and executive producing the third season of the Emmy-nominated series A Black Lady Sketch Show. Rae is also reviving Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Project Greenlight on HBO Max. The docuseries was previously cancelled after Damon refuted the necessity for diverse casting of participants but under Rae, it will pivot to spotlight the next generation of promising female filmmakers who will be given the chance to direct a feature film.
