Issa Rae Returns to HBO With New Comedy Pilot About Male Friendship

HBO has ordered a pilot for Issa Rae’s untitled male friendship comedy, a half-hour series she wrote and will executive produce.

The series centers on Menzel, a 30-year-old barber and aspiring sports manager who is also the “professional best friend” of JB, an up-and-coming boxer. Set in the high-stakes world of professional boxing in Las Vegas.  The show explores how ambition, insecurity, loneliness, and the pressures of success put their friendship to the test.

Rae’s Insecure collaborator Prentice Penny will serve as showrunner and executive producer and direct the pilot.

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Male Friendship Comedy Set in World of Vegas Boxing

The project follows Menzel, a 30-year-old barber who is trying to get into sports management while also being the closest friend of JB, a boxer whose career is starting to take off. Set against professional boxing in Las Vegas, the series will look at how ambition, money, insecurity, and success begin to wear on their friendship and pull the two men in different directions.

It also brings Issa Rae back together with Prentice Penny, one of her key collaborators from Insecure. Penny will serve as showrunner, executive producer, and the director of the pilot. He previously earned an Emmy nomination for Insecure and has worked on shows including Brooklyn Nine, Happy Endings, Scrubs, and Pause with Sam Jay. Jax Clark will executive produce for Rae’s Hoorae. 

Jonathan Berry and Dave Becky will executive produce through 3 Arts Entertainment. The HBO order arrives shortly after the American actress and producer spoke openly about feeling restless in this stage of her career. On Kevin Fredericks’ Not My Best Moment podcast, she tied her sense of success to having a show in production.

“I know that I appear successful to other people, but right now, no, I feel really stagnant,” Rae said. “Because I only feel successful when my sh_t is on the air. I don’t have sh_t on the air right now.” That makes this pilot a meaningful return to the network where Rae built much of her TV career. Insecure, which she co-created with Larry Wilmore, ran for five seasons on HBO and received 14 Emmy nominations, a Peabody Award, and three Golden Globe nominations.

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Rae on Staying True to Her Authentic Self

Rae later executive produced A Black Lady Sketch Show and created Rap Sh!t, a series about two friends trying to break into the Miami rap scene that ran for two seasons. She has also reflected on how past setbacks shaped her approach. Talking about the unproduced “I Hate L.A. Dudes”, she told Fredericks that she deferred too much to people with more conventional industry experience.

“I forgot that they wanted to work with me because I’m me,” Rae said. She came away with a clearer sense of what collaborators want from her: “They want me to be as loud as possible with what I want to say.”

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The HBO pilot comes amid another shift for Rae’s business. She signed a three-year first-look film and television deal with Paramount in January, after previously being under an overall deal with HBO starting in 2021. According to Deadline, the Vegas boxing project was likely developed before the Paramount deal.