Robin Thede Talks ‘A Black Lady Sketch Show’ Success And Celebrating Black Women
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Season four of Robin Thede’s A Black Lady Sketch Show premieres tonight (April 14) on HBO. The acclaimed comedienne spoke with PEOPLE about the upcoming season and the key behind this path of success she’s created for herself and fellow Black women.
“This season is wild,” Thede, 43, explained. “Our last day of filming, Tracee Ellis Ross comes in. We couldn’t get through anything. We were laughing so hard. It is hard work but it is so joyful.” Cultivating such an environment for Black talent, specifically Black women, is what Thede considered to be her life’s purpose.
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“Black women are the funniest people on earth,” she added. “Black women raised me. So for me, it’s personal. Why not celebrate that? When I saw Whoopi doing characters in her one-woman show, and then Kim Wayans on ‘In Living Color,’ those were my heroes.”
During her tenure on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, Thede became the first Black woman to ever lead the writers room on a late night show. It was then she “got addicted to helping people.”
After her brief late night stint with The Rundown, she and Issa Rae partnered to launch A Black Lady Sketch Show for HBO and credits its success to her audacious confidence.
“If you can do things that also benefit others while benefiting yourself, you’re always gonna win. I’ve always had reckless confidence,” Thede admits. “It’s not cockiness, she explains, but a deep belief in herself. “It’s like, I don’t care how hard it is, I don’t care who’s never done it before, I can do that thing.”
Watch a full sketch from the new season of A Black Lady Sketch Show starring Thede, Gabrielle Dennis, Skye Townsend, Angel Laketa Moore, and Tamara Jade below.
