“Representation matters,” said screenwriter and producer Mara Brock Akil upon signing a contract with Netflix in 2020. The deal gives Brock Akil a whole new platform to showcase marginalised characters – something she’s become renowned for since entering the television industry in the 1990s.
Let’s look at some context. According to Women and Hollywood, female creators represented just 28% of all television creators during the season of 2019 – 2020. This number might seem very low, but it was an all-time high.
This only makes it all the more impressive when you consider that Brock Akil has been the driving force behind some of television’s biggest shows for two decades. This includes the likes of Girlfriends, The Game and Being Mary Jane.
Yes, Brock Akil’s made fantastic strides as a black woman in the television industry. In the process, she’s also made incredible strides for black women in general. How did she do this? Let’s go back to the start.
Brock Akil was born in Los Angeles in 1970 and was raised as a practising Muslim. When she was just eight, she moved with her mother and siblings to Kansas City, Missouri. While her parents were divorced, Brock Akil was full of admiration for her mother, Joan. She instilled in her a lifelong can-do attitude, which ultimately led her to pursue a career in journalism.
Life, however, sent Brock Akil in another direction when she attended Northwestern University in Chicago. In her senior year, she took a screenwriting course and was immediately head over heels with the writing process. In an interview with Vibe in 2015, she explained:
“I literally fell in love. I couldn’t wait to get back to the script, I only wanted to be with my script, and that’s the first time characters came alive for me.”
Television was sorely lacking in black female characters at this point– never mind the black female producers and screenwriters who could create them. Brock Akil had one of her first real chances to change this when she landed a role on the series Moesha in the 90s.
Reflecting on this opportunity through a post on Instagram in 2020, Brock Akil wrote:
“All we need is a chance, a village of support and one can soar… Forever #grateful to the village that helped me find my voice and vision.”
Photo Kathy Hutchins
After a successful stint on Moesha, Brock Akil made arguably the most significant move of her entire career when she pitched a new show called Girlfriends. Its strong female characters would instantly draw comparisons to HBO’s Sex and the City – only there was one big difference: the characters were black.
In an interview with Harpers Bazaar in 2020, Brock Akil highlighted what made the two shows separate. She said:
“[Black women] did not have any seat at the table on Sex and the City. And although I still really enjoyed the show, I didn’t see that as a rejection. I saw it as an opportunity.”
Girlfriends – which was often hailed as ‘groundbreaking’ – ran for eight seasons from 2000 to 2008. Starring actresses such as Tracee Ellis Ross, Golden Brooks, Persia White and Jill Marie Jones, it shone a refreshing light on the issues faced by women of colour. It was undeniably popular, earning millions of viewers for each episode that aired on UPN.
One of the most praised features was that Brock Akil didn’t gloss over the reality of the women she presented. Instead, they were portrayed as both flawed and likeable. According to Brock Akil, this ‘human’ element really made the show stand out and has since helped it stand the test of time.
In 2020, she said:
“I was raised to want and have the best for myself, and then I want that for my people – so what I’m going to give my people is the space to be human, and that’s the best we can do for each other. I knew it would have an impact.”
Girlfriends is a shining example of the pride Brock Akil takes in her work as a creator – not to mention the level of importance she brings to portray black characters accurately. If she ever received pushback for an idea, she was determined to argue her case if it meant bettering the show and accurately reflecting the black community.
This happened when it came to the hairstyle of actress Tracee Ellis Ross, who played Joan on Girlfriends. In an interview with Vogue in 2020, Brock Akin explained she had to ‘fight the studio and network’ for them to allow Ross to wear her hair naturally.
She told the publication:
“I essentially did a report on the different hairstyles that black women were wearing to educate them. Mind you, I was wearing my hair naturally curly, too.”
This same attention to detail can be seen in Brock Akil’s later shows, including Girlfriends spin-off The Game. She would also make waves with the show Being Mary Jane from 2013 to 2019. This drama series drew record ratings on BET, a network dedicated to African American audiences.
As mentioned, last year Brock Akil inked a new deal with Netflix. This will allow her to utilise one of the biggest platforms in the world and follow in the footsteps of the likes of Shonda Rhimes, whose new show Bridgerton is now the most-watched original series in the history of the streaming service.
Commenting on the new relationship, Brock Akil said:
“I’m excited to have a home that allows me the creative freedom and support to do what I do best– paint portraits and murals of women, Black people and anyone else whose story is missing from this golden age of television. Representation matters, and so does who you build with.”
There’s a lot more left to come from this talented producer and screenwriter, who only recently celebrated her 50th birthday. Indeed, ‘representation matters’ – and if history has proven anything, it’s that there are few people better equipped to handle this responsibility than Mara Brock Akil.