Lena Waithe compares showbiz to being in a boxing ring.
“It’s never easy,” the multi-hyphenate, 37, told Page Six at the Tribeca Film Festival’s Indeed “Rising Voices” red carpet on Wednesday. “This business is not designed to be easy. It’s always a fight. My goal is to stay in the ring.”
With that in mind, Waithe — who created Showtime’s “The Chi,” wrote the critically acclaimed 2020 movie “Queen & Slim” and stars in Netflix’s “Master of None” — decided to get involved with the Indeed “Rising Voices” event, which showcased projects by 10 BIPOC filmmakers.
“What we’re trying to do here is to make sure these young performers get the opportunities to tell their stories,” she said.
“It’s important that we all pay it forward, that we bring people along with us,” Waithe continued. “For so long there’s been roadblocks, and I think my mission is to take them away and let people come in and do what they want to do.”
In 2017, the Chicago-born star became the first black woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for penning “Master of None”’s “Thanksgiving” episode, which loosely mirrored her own coming out story to her family.
Waithe has continued to break down barriers ever since. Last year, she voiced police officer Specter in the Pixar flick “Onward,” the first queer animated character in Disney history.