50 Fun Facts About Insecure

In Insecure, how does Issa pump herself up in private before a big moment?

Rapping to her mirror gives Issa a bolder, more profane alter ego, and it lets the show voice her inner monologue without a voice-over.

Which YouTube web series was Insecure partially based on?

Awkward Black Girl made Rae's name online and led Shonda Rhimes to help her develop a first TV script, I Hate L.A. Dudes, which never made it to air.

On which network did Insecure air?

HBO put the first episode online two weeks early, then aired it against a presidential debate and Sunday Night Football, when fewer than 400,000 people watched live.

Insecure's series finale jumps ahead to Molly's wedding to whom?

Taurean starts out as the uptight colleague who clashes with Molly at her new job, and the finale, the last of the show's 44 episodes, skips ahead to their wedding.

A rent hike forces Issa out of which apartment complex, her home when Insecure begins?

The Dunes is where Issa lives with Lawrence when the show begins, and the series finale returns to its front steps in a farewell drive past the show's landmarks.

In Insecure, what is Molly's profession?

Corporate attorney. In season two Molly is handed a white colleague's pay cheque by mistake, learns he earns far more than she does and starts interviewing elsewhere.

Issa and Molly have been best friends since their days at which university?

Stanford is Rae's own alma mater: in her senior year there she made a mock reality series about Black student life that caught on at other campuses.

In Insecure, what is the name of the youth non-profit where Issa works in the early seasons?

We Got Y'all sends Issa into classrooms full of merciless kids, who in season one find a video of her on stage at an open-mic night and chant the lyrics back at her.

In Insecure, who plays Issa's long-term boyfriend Lawrence Walker?

Jay Ellis found out how seriously fans took Lawrence in 2022, when he said a woman slapped him at an airport over something the character did in season three.

Why has Lawrence been slacking in the relationship in season one?

Issa struggles to reignite the passion in their relationship.

In which part of L.A. is Insecure set?

South Los Angeles is where Rae grew up, so she set and filmed the show in her own neighbourhood, View Park-Windsor Hills, and in nearby Leimert Park and Inglewood.

Who was Insecure's showrunner for all five seasons?

Prentice Penny also directed the series finale, where he quietly had Rae's co-star speak to her as herself, not in character, to draw real tears for their last scene.

Which music-video director shot Insecure's pilot and stayed on as an executive producer?

Melina Matsoukas had just won MTV's top directing prize for Beyoncé's 'Formation' when the pilot aired, and she returned to direct eight episodes in all, including the final season's opener.

Which musician composed Insecure's original score?

Raphael Saadiq, the R&B veteran, wrote the score, and Rae brought him on camera to talk through the characters in the show's 'Wine Down' after-chats.

Which singer served as music consultant on Insecure?

Solange advised on the sound of season one, which reached the screen as she scored her first number-one album, and by season two Jazmine Sullivan and Bryson Tiller were recording new songs for the show.

Insecure's hit soundtracks led its creator to launch which record label in 2019?

Raedio grew out of frustration: Rae found clearing and releasing the show's soundtracks so convoluted that she launched her own label with Atlantic Records in October 2019.

Which fake TV drama, starring Regina Hall and Scott Foley, are Insecure's characters hooked on in season two?

Due North is a soap set in the slavery-era South, with Hall as an enslaved woman in love with her master, and it was shot like a real series on its own sets to send up prime-time soaps.

In Insecure's third season, the friends road-trip to which festival to see Beyoncé?

Coachella goes wrong fast: one friend is tased by security, a brawl costs the group their spots by the main stage, and they go home without ever seeing Beyoncé.

Insecure's second season moved to summer 2017 to air alongside which hit drama?

Game of Thrones drew 9.3 million viewers on July 23, the night season two premiered, and Insecure's 1.1 million was triple the audience of its series premiere.

Which show beat Insecure to 2020's comedy-series Emmy?

Schitt's Creek swept all seven comedy categories that night; Insecure, with eight nominations, won once, for the editing of 'Lowkey Trying', an episode directed by Kerry Washington.

In Insecure's third season, which side job brings Issa extra cash and a new love interest?

Driving for Lyft puts a handsome stranger in Issa's back seat; a few weeks later she runs into the same passenger at lunch, and the two start dating.

Which Insecure cast member earned a 2020 Emmy nomination for supporting actress?

Yvonne Orji was nominated for season four. She plays the show's busiest dater while being, by her own account, a devout Christian who is saving sex for marriage.

Which Insecure character does Natasha Rothwell play?

Kelli Prenny did not exist when Rothwell joined the show: she was the first writer hired, and was cast in the part only after a table read during season one.

Amanda Seales plays which Insecure character?

Tiffany DuBois is written as a proud Alpha Kappa Alpha member, and in 2021 real members of the sorority objected online because Seales, who wears its colours on screen, never pledged.

In Insecure, what does Daniel, Issa's old flame, do for a living?

A music producer: Daniel, played by Y'lan Noel, speaks at Issa's Career Day in season one, but by season three his own career is stalling while she sleeps on his couch.

Kendrick Sampson plays which Insecure character from season three onward?

Nathan Campbell vanishes on Issa without a word in season three, and she is rattled enough to talk Molly into driving to his place so she can snoop around his room.

Whose pregnancy, revealed at the end of Insecure's fourth season, upends Issa and Lawrence's reunion?

Condola, Lawrence's ex, breaks the news just as he and Issa have found their way back to each other; their son, Elijah, arrives in the final season.

Which event does Issa organise in Insecure's fourth season?

A block party is the project Issa pitches to sponsors as the season opens, and the night it finally happens ends in a huge row with Molly that keeps the two friends at odds until the season's end.

Late in Insecure's fourth season, Lawrence is offered a new job in which city?

San Francisco comes up just as Lawrence and Issa reunite, and she is ready to uproot her life and move there with him before bad news ends the plan.

Which cable channel began airing reruns of Insecure in February 2023?

OWN, Oprah Winfrey's channel, reportedly agreed to air the show with no cuts for language or nudity, so the only change was ad breaks that stretched each episode to 45 minutes.

In July 2023, Insecure became the first of its network's original series to land on which streaming service?

Netflix got all five seasons for US viewers in a deal that kept them on their home service too; Six Feet Under, Ballers and Band of Brothers followed Insecure across.

In Insecure, Issa and Molly's favourite restaurant, where they call a truce in season four, serves which cuisine?

Ethiopian. The restaurant, Merkato, is also where the two friends talk over dinner in the pilot, so the truce brings their friendship back to the table where viewers first met it.

What is Rae's full birth name?

Jo-Issa Rae Diop blends her grandmothers' names, Joyce and Isseu; she trimmed it to Issa Rae in 2008, the year after college, while she was still making web series.

Rae's father is a pediatrician from which country?

Senegal. Her parents met as students in France, and when she was a small child the family spent two years living in her father's hometown, Dakar.

Which role did Issa Rae play in the 2023 film Barbie?

President Barbie runs Barbieland until the Kens take over, and wins it back when the Barbies set the Kens fighting each other before they can rewrite the constitution.

Which series, set in Miami, did Issa Rae create as her follow-up to Insecure?

Rap Sh!t follows two estranged school friends who reunite as a hip-hop duo, a story loosely inspired by the real Miami pair City Girls, who signed on as producers.

What viral line did Rae deliver on the 2017 Emmys red carpet?

'I'm rooting for everybody Black' was Rae's off-the-cuff reply to a Variety reporter; it spread as a meme, turned up on unlicensed T-shirts and was quoted by Wale in his song 'Sue Me'.

Which production company did Insecure's creator launch in 2020?

Hoorae Media, pronounced 'hooray', pulled Rae's film, TV and digital ventures under one banner, and six months later she signed a five-year WarnerMedia deal reported to be worth $40 million.

Fans paid to finish season one of Issa Rae's breakout web series through which site?

Kickstarter backers, 1,960 of them, gave more than $56,000 in 2011 so that Rae and producer Tracy Oliver could shoot the rest of the season and release it on YouTube.

The second season of Issa Rae's breakout web series premiered on whose YouTube channel?

Pharrell Williams phoned Rae himself during the first season, told her he had once tried and failed to sell a similar show, and gave hers a home on his new channel, I am OTHER.

The actor behind Insecure's Molly was born in which West African country?

Nigeria: she was born in Port Harcourt and moved to Maryland at six, and on set she bonded with guest star Jidenna over their shared Igbo roots.

The actor who plays Insecure's Molly holds a master's degree in which field?

Public health was her compromise with parents who expected a doctor; as a graduate student she entered a pageant, did stand-up for the talent round and found her career.

In Insecure, Issa and Lawrence's gang-affiliated neighbour, a doting father, goes by which nickname?

Thug Yoda earns the name with shrewd advice on life and love, delivered in his own dialect: a die-hard Blood, he swaps every 'c' for a 'b' and talks about the human 'bondition'.

The actor who plays Insecure's Lawrence played 'Payback' in which 2022 blockbuster?

Top Gun: Maverick put its screen pilots through a three-month boot camp that Tom Cruise designed himself, so the actors could cope with real high-g flights in Navy jets.

Natasha Rothwell wrote for which sketch show in the 2014–15 season?

Saturday Night Live hired her for a single season as a writer; until then she had spent four years teaching high-school theatre in New York while performing improv on the side.

Amanda Seales spent six months in 2020 as a co-host of which daytime talk show?

The Real made her a permanent co-host at the start of 2020, and that June she chose not to renew, saying she could not speak to her people there the way they needed to be spoken to.

Insecure's showrunner wrote and directed which 2020 film about a would-be sommelier?

Uncorked follows a young man in Memphis who would rather become a master sommelier than take over the family barbecue restaurant; its writer-director's own father ran a family furniture business.

Larry Wilmore, Insecure's co-creator, was also an executive producer of which sitcom?

Black-ish was meant to have Wilmore as its showrunner, but he gave the job up so that he could host The Nightly Show on Comedy Central.

In Insecure's third season, what lets Issa afford an apartment of her own?

She manages the building in return for cheaper rent, so tenants bring her their complaints at all hours; one sends her small son to knock just as a date is going well.

Late in Insecure's final season, one of the four friends announces she is moving to which city?

Denver. Her husband's new job takes the couple away near the end of the series, and when the others fly out to visit in the finale it turns out she hates living there.