What made you decide that the industry needed that specific kind of community? And what has that network meant for writers who didn't think that they would make it without having something like this in their lives?

You know, Black Woman Who Brunch came from Lena Waithe, who's a very good friend of mine, and Erica Johnson, who's another good friend of mine.

The three of us, we were baby writers.

In fact, I think Lena was a staff writer, I believe.

Yeah, Lena was a staff writer.

Erica, I believe.

I think she was an executive story editor and I was an executive story editor.

Everybody.

Mm-hmm.

And but it was important to me that he understood what he'd brought to the table and why we were doing it, and what respect I had for him and his craft, even though the character was gonna be, um, killed off.

And so I, I've been so blessed by this cast, so blessed by this cast, and quite honestly, spoiled by this cast, because they're truly, truly consummate professionals.

They truly put their heart and soul into the show in the same way that, you know, my writers and I were doing, um, upstairs, and they trusted us, you know? And if there was ever anything where it was just a quest- it was never like, "Oh, I wouldn't do this." It's like, "I just wanna understand what's happening here," and we would explain what's happening.

And they're like, "Oh, okay, I get it." And I'm like, "But I can...

We, you know, we can tweak it.

There's nothing we can't write our way out of." And they'd be like, "No, no, no, no, no, I'm good.

[laughs]