Issa Rae, the award-winning actress, producer, writer and director, will be this year’s recipient of the Producers Guild’s Visionary Award, which honors those “who share inspiring, uplifting stories that add unique value to society and culture.” It will be presented to her in person at the 33rd Annual Producers Guild Awards on March 19 at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
“Issa makes us excited for the future of television,” PGA presidents Gail Berman and Lucy Fisher said in a joint statement. “With her series Insecure, she achieved the highest levels of comedy, perspective and performance possible, and her sharp wit and distinct voice will undoubtedly continue to drive quality entertainment featuring underrepresented voices. Beyond Issa’s prolific work, she is a role model and inspiration to the next generation of creatives through her mentorship programs like ColorCreative, and more recently, Project Greenlight. We are thrilled to honor Issa this year.”
Rae created and stars in HBO’s Insecure, for which she received multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, and is the voice of Jessica Drew in the upcoming animated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – Part One. In 2020, she starred in Netflix’s The Lovebirds and HBO’s political satire, Coastal Elites.
Projects she’s developing and producing for HBO and HBO Max include an adaptation of the Octavia Butler novel Fledgling with J.J. Abrams; an adaptation of the New York Times podcast Nice White Parents alongside Adam McKay, and a new original series called Rap Sh*t.
Past recipients of the award include Octavia Spencer, Kenya Barris, Ava DuVernay, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner’s Plan B Entertainment, Illumination Entertainment’s Chis Meledandri, Laura Ziskin, and Participant Media’s Jeff Skoll.