A biography for Lena Waithehasn’t been written yet.
“You have to write and develop and wait for the world to catch up to your art.”
“I love a web series. But to me, it does the girl in Detroit a disservice who just watches television. It does a disservice to the girl on the south side of Chicago who doesn't go online.”
“I was running around all the time, talking out of turn, a lot of energy, and obsessed with movies. There's nothing I loved more than going to the movies.”
“I think it's so trite to say you have lead characters. It's like someone saying I'm the lead in my life.”
“Being born gay, black, and female is not a revolutionary act. Being proud to be a gay black female is.”
“I consider myself more of a writer than I do a director.”
“Being on Netflix lets us be experimental. We can do crazy things.”
“Like 'Sex and the City' - if you're a New Yorker, you knew half the places they were going to. I want 'The Chi' to feel that way as well.”
“The things that make us different, those are our superpowers.”
“There's been a lot of successful shows like 'This Is Us,' 'Atlanta,' and 'Insecure,' so, I feel like whenever something works, Hollywood wants to copy it.”
“It took me forever to leave Chicago. I went to Columbia College because I wasn't ready to leave! My professors had to kick me in the pants to move to Los Angeles.”
“I sort of knew very early on that I wanted to be a writer. Even in high school, I was a big movie buff, very much into TV shows, and would critique them.”
“I got into the business because I love writing. When it came down to finding my voice, which every writer has to take time to do, I think I realized I write black people very well. I write us in a very honest way, and I want to hear the way we really talk.”
“I'm proud to carry that torch and be like, 'I'm gay! I'm black! Hang your dreams on me. Hang your hopes on me. I'll carry them to the best of my ability.'”
“I actually don't like saying 'lead character,' which is an interesting thing. If you say there's a lead, then there has to be someone to follow.”
“Obviously, I love Steph Curry. I think he's dope and a really cool player to watch.”
“I always love where I can plug a black woman in anywhere, and when that comes up, I don't say, 'Oh that has to be a black woman.' I say, 'Why not a black woman?'”
“I'm writing my story so that others might see fragments of themselves.”
“I never had everything I wanted, but I never wanted for anything.”
“The cool thing about dope black style becoming in style is that the industry has no choice but to try and reduplicate that.”