While in college, Tracy Oliver was interested in the performing arts, but she eventually realized she was often the “sassy, funny sidekick and not the lead.” This realization - and her mother - actually inspired her to start writing rather than wait for someone to cast her.
Oliver was tired of being the “cigarette-smoking friend” or in the “slavery movie,” so she started to write about herself. “That, weirdly, was revolutionary to write about the normalcy of black life.”
As a writer, she’s now known for Survivor’s Remorse, Barbershop: The Next Cut, Girls Trip, Little, First Wives Club, and the upcoming series Harlem.
In this interview, Oliver talks about black normalcy in film and television, what led her to becoming a writer-producer, how to craft IP for black stories, and the most important trait to stay employed as a writer.
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