How much is Issa Rae worth?
| Net Worth: | $6.5 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Actress |
| Date of Birth: | January 12, 1985 (age 38) |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 5 ft 8 in (1.75 m) |
About Issa Rae
Issa Rae is the stage name of Jo-Issa Rae Diop, an American actress, author, director, producer, and writer that garnered attention from her web series Awkward Black Girl on YouTube. She has achieved wider-recognition as the co-creator, writer, and star of the HBO series Insecure that also brought her nominations for prestigious awards such as Golden Globes and Primetime Emmys.
Issa Rae gained fame from her YouTube channel where she posts short films and web series plus some content created by people of color. She was born in Los Angeles, California, on January 12, 1985. She’s one of five children to Abdoulaye and Delyna Diop. Her father worked as both a neonatologist and pediatrician from Senegal, while her American mother from Louisiana is a teacher. Her parents met during a school trip in France and continued to communicate over the 1950s. They eventually married and settled in California.
At first, her family lived in Dakar, Senegal before they moved to the United States. She was raised in Potomac, Maryland where she attended local high schools. Issa is fluent in French and when she was in sixth grade, her family moved to the Los Angeles neighborhood – View Park-Windsor Hills. There, she attended a black middle school.
While receiving her education at the King Drew’s Magnet High School of Science and Medicine, she began acting. Her parents divorced when she was in high school. In the mid to late-2000s, Issa attended the Stanford University from which she earned a Bachelor of Arts in African-American and African Studies. During her time at the university, she began creating music and plays.
Issa initially created a YouTube channel in October 2006 under the name Issa Rae Presents. She began uploading consistently and eventually created her own web series Awkward Black Girl that helped her breakthrough. The web show follows the life of a fictional character and almost immediately went viral through blog posts, social media, and word of mouth. To raise money for the show, she raised around $56,000 through nearly 2,000 donations from Kickstarter.
“I think that just because the show is titled ‘Awkward Black Girl’ and it is a predominantly black cast doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be able to relate to these people. We’re all human beings. We all essentially go through the same things when it comes down to it, so I don’t I think that should limit who watches it,” Issa Rae has said.
After increasing momentum in her career, Rae met musician and record producer Pharrell Williams with whom she partnered for season two. The second season of her web show aired on his channel i am OTHER. In 2013, she began working on comedy series with Larry Willmore that was picked up by HBO and received the title Insecure. The show premiered in October 2016 and immediately became a fan favorite.
As of now, Issa Rae has co-created, co-wrote, and starred in all of the acclaimed show’s 34 episodes and 4 seasons. From the show she has mainstream recognition and the actress has received two Golden Globe and two Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
Apart from creating content on YouTube and appearing in film and television productions, Issa Rae has ventured in several other projects. She wrote her first book and titled it The Misadventures of An Awkward Black Girl. The memoir was released in February 2015 and instantly became a New York Times best-seller. In late 2019, she signed a deal with Google for an additional voice of their product, Google Assistant. She also launched her own record label under the name Raedio, in partnership with Atlantic Records.
Issa’s acting career flourished in the 2010s, almost immediately after her web series gained popularity. Apart from the popular HBO series Insecure, she has also appeared in many other productions. She starred in and produced films such as Hair Love, The Photograph, and The Lovebirds.
Among some of her most notable roles in television series as both an actor, producer, and writer are in the likes of The Choir, BoJack Horseman, A Black Sketch Lady Show, and Coastal Elites. She has also appeared in numerous music videos of artists such as Pharell, Jay-Z, and Drake.
Rae’s Total Net Worth
Issa Rae signed a $40 million, five-year deal with Warner Brothers, in 2021. Rae has earned perhaps $8 million in the last year. In total from all of her work in the entertainment business and through her books, Issa Rae is estimated to have had gross income in the region of $14 million dollars.
Of that amount, around $1 million will have been paid in business related costs. The remainder, $13 million, will have been taxed at 48% as Rae has been residing in the state of California. After tax, it is estimated that her career earnings are at around $6.76 million dollars, having paid $6.24 million dollars in taxes.
Issa Rae married Louis Diame in 2021. They have no children and Rae also has no children from ant previous relationship, or any past marriages. In her personal life, Rae is considered an activist who has earned $700,000 for the Sterling Family Trust to help pay for the Sterling children to attend college. She has also used her platform to bring attention to police violence and brutality against African-Americans. She works closely with organizations like the ACLU, BLD PWR, and Black Lives Matter.
Rae has had no history of mental illness or alcohol abuse, she has kept herself in good physical shape and no doubt that extends to her finances. She would have of course incurred personal expenses, living costs as well as miscellaneous payments. Rae will have had business costs, including agent and management fees. In addition to some money spent, some lost, and some investment gains.
In her personal life she has likely spent $700,000 of her career earnings but also probably possesses assets valued at around $350,000, not including investment assets. In her investments, she may have earned investment returns of $200,000. Therefore, it is estimated that Issa Rae has a net worth of about $6.5 million dollars.
Summing-Up
Issa Rae is a famous actress who began her career a little over a decade ago as a YouTube personality. Shortly after, she became popular and joined the HBO series Insecure that she co-wrote and created and for which she earned more than 20 prestigious awards and nominations.
She started her acting career during her high school years and has continued ever since. While studying at the college, she was also creating music videos and writing and directing plays. She also created Dorm Diaries, a reality TV series just for fun.
