Beneath the actress’s insecure comic persona is the fearless spirit of a serial entrepreneur. She counted her film and television careers by counting jewelry collections, hair care companies, Prosecco brands, and more. Modern Renaissance woman portrait.
By Forbes staff member Maggie McGrath
On a bright September afternoon in the middle of New York Fashion Week, Issaray sits on the rooftop patio at the 11 Howard Hotel in Soho, showing off her latest project. work. The collection invoked the play “Brave,” a surname play, but marks a new chapter in her life as an actress, producer and entrepreneur. She is finally creating something concrete.
“Even if (my TV show) is unsure, I can’t hold it. Others own it and I have it, knowing I made it It’s about being there,” says 40-year-old Ray. “On the other hand, this comes from me. Someone can wear it. I wear it, and it represents me in a way I don’t think I’ll get that much.”
Jameal Toppin for Forbes
Her career was not temporary. In 2011, Ray, a temporary worker in a cash-bound office, created the YouTube series, “The Misadventures of Through Black Girl.” She crowdfunded over $56,000 to finish her first season and partnered with Pharrell Williams to produce a second. Three years later, HBO Greenlit’s next series, Insecure, continued her nasty adventures. The show ran for five seasons and won multiple Emmy Award nominations (including outstanding comedy series and outstanding lead actresses). .
Today, Ray continues to be one of Hollywood’s busiest multi-hyphenates, but she prefers the title of producer. (“Producers make things happen,” said Ray at the 2024 Forbes Power Women Summit.) She was known for her production company (hoorae), music label (raedio), and name Ray. We have built a flywheel for business that is full of puns. She was a puny talent management company (Color Creative), which she founded in 2014. In 2020, she became co-owner of hair care brand Sienna Naturals. Location of 200 Sephora in 20025. She also has a Prosecco branded vialae. Gallowinary, $5 billion wine behemoth. And she is an equity partner for Hilltop Coffee, the South Los Angeles coffee chain. Ray expanded to Inglewood, Eagle Rock and Downtown.
Despite her budding empire, the woman who played President Barbie in 2023 claims she has no master plan. “It happened organically, and these things happened because we were all already doing,” she says. For example, her music label was born from her own musical director with uncertainty. Hoorae’s marketing business was born out of her desire to control many of the advertising campaigns she was sought after. “For me, it was about formalizing it and building intentions around it.”
Mo Ivory, director of the Center for Entertainment, Sports and IP Law at Georgia State University’s Faculty of Law, gives RAE more credibility than that. Last year, Ivory taught the legal class on the structure of Rae’s business transactions, and compared to other performers her students studied for the class (including Rick Ross and Ludacris), Rae exchanged her legs for her Never compromise on creative controls Hollywood or bigger checks. “Issa would certainly say she’s a nasty black girl, but she’s very familiar with it too. And it was from the start,” Ivory says. “She’s always trying to get away from deals that aren’t suitable for her, and I think it speaks a lot to the respect she has and the integrity she has for her creativity. .”
Ray often attributes that creativity to her development. The middle child of five siblings born to a pediatrician father and a mother of a school teacher, she grew up in Potomac, Maryland. Senegal (where her father is); Los Angeles. Ray remembers childhood dinners that make up fun games for moms, such as “Don’t Smile and Smile.” Purpose: Be the last person on the table to maintain a straight face. This meant that dinner was essentially a comedy workshop.
In high school, Rae originally wanted to follow in his father’s medical footsteps, but instead fell in love with the theater. She graduated from Stanford (with a degree in African American studies) and after a brief assignment in New York, she returned to Southern California to launch a nasty black girl.
Game: “She always gives someone an alley,” says Ray’s friend and shaky co-star Yvonne Orgi (right). “It’s up to them to hit it.”
HBO
Yvonne Orgi starred in anxiety as Rey’s best friend, but also a real-life friend with her, the comedian says that the secret behind Ray’s comedy lies in his ability to find humor in “Everyday Miniature.” She also believes Ray is her innate ability to give opportunities to unrecognized talents that Hollywood doesn’t want to see or invest in at all times.
“I’m thinking about the opportunities she gave me. Now (the producer) will say, ‘We really want the Yvonne Orgi type.’ And I wasn’t the “type” from 10 years ago! ” Orji says. “She always gives someone an alley. It’s up to them to hit it.”
Rae also understands that not every project will be a slam dunk. She says it took her latest film, “One of them,” starring Cake Palmer and SZA, to be on screen. “We were able to make it happen, but unless we succeed, it won’t happen again.”
And despite all the “Ray” puns in her business venture, she is focused on building a brand that can continue without her. That’s why Issa Leh Productions became Furae. “‘hooray’ is just a celebration,” she says.
That same instinct also attracted her to add “jewelry designer” to her list of titles for her growing work. “The cast is the most legacy-building collaboration I’ve ever done,” she says. “Storytelling is eternal. There’s no mistake, but sometimes stories are separated from the storyteller. The best stories do. I still feel this… specifically, they’re finite.”
More from Forbes
