“Master of None’s” Season 2 episode “Thanksgiving” traces the years-long coming out story of Denise, played by Lena Waithe. But Waithe, who wrote the episode with series co-creator and star Aziz Ansari, didn’t realize the significance of the episode until it hit Netflix. “I have never seen a black female character come out on television,” she said in a conversation with IndieWire. “I haven’t. If somebody else has, please call me. Tell me where I can go find it. I didn’t realize how revolutionary it was. I really didn’t.”
But viewers did realize — and so did the Academy. “A lot of gay people, people of color, and the queer community really responded to [‘Thanksgiving’],” Waithe said, describing how they reached out to her on Twitter. And the actress received an Emmy nomination for comedy writing — the first black woman to ever do so.
“There are times you’re going about your business of being an artist, and you don’t realize that what you’re doing hasn’t been done before,” Waithe said. “So I cannot be prouder of the fact that we did do it. We just wanted to tell this unique, cool story that we hadn’t seen before, and in doing that it liberated a lot of people, as certain people saw themselves [in Denise’s story].”
The conversation then turned to Twitter’s #FirstTimeISawMe campaign, which sees people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, people living with disabilities, and many more sharing the first time they encountered a character that reminded them of themselves. Waithe’s Denise serves as the #FirstTimeISawMe subject for plenty of tweets.
“It touches my heart,” Waithe gushed before sharing her own #FirstTimeISawMe story. “The first time I saw me, I saw this girl Tasha [played by Rose Rollins] on ‘The L Word.’ It was the first black female character on that show. That was a big deal for me because I was like a budding lesbian living in Chicago, not seeing myself at all on television.”
Waithe continued, “I know I am a very unique sort of lesbian. I am sort of in the middle. I am not all feminine. I’m not all masculine. I am somewhere in the middle, and I think there is a large community of women like that.”
Before getting her breakthrough role on “Master of None,” Waithe wrote for series like “Bones” and “Hello Cupid,” served as “Love & Basketball” director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s assistant, and produced indie film “Dear White People.” Her next projects include the hourlong Showtime drama “The Chi,” following six interconnected characters living in the South Side of Chicago, and an untitled TV movie to be helmed by Clark Johnson (“Homeland,” “The Wire”).
