Lena Waithe

Lena D. Waithe (born May 17, 1984) is an American actress, producer, and screenwriter, best known for her role as Denise on the 2015 Netflix series Master of None. Waithe, along with Aziz Ansari, won an Emmy in 2017 for writing the "Thanksgiving" episode of Master of None. 2Early life Waithe was born in Chicago, Illinois. Though acting was not originally among Waithe's ambitions, she knew from the age of seven that she wanted to be a television writer, and received strong family support for her writing from her single mother and grandmother. She graduated from Evanston Township High School and from Columbia College Chicago in 2006, crediting faculty playwright Michael Fry for his teaching and encouragement. 2Career Waithe has been a writer for the Fox television series Bones, a writer for the 2012 Nickelodeon sitcom How to Rock, and a producer on the 2014 satirical comedy film Dear White People. Waithe wrote and appeared in the YouTube series "Twenties" which was produced by Flavor Unit Entertainment and optioned in 2014 by BET. In addition to writing and directing the short film "Save Me", which was shown at several independent film festivals, Waithe wrote the 2013 web series "Hello Cupid" and the 2011 viral video Shit Black Girls Say. In 2014, Variety named Waithe as one of its "10 Comedians to Watch". In August 2015, Showtime network commissioned a pilot for an upcoming series, written by Waithe and produced by Common, which tells a young urban African-American man's coming-of-age story. Both Waithe and Common grew up on Chicago's South Sid