For 30 years, Bowser has been putting Black characters on screen and helping a generation of storytellers get the chance to tell their own stories.
EW Game Changers is a series profiling the people and projects making an impact in diversity, equity, and inclusion in entertainment.
Yvette Lee Bowser has changed the face of television.
Though probably best known for being the first Black woman to develop her own primetime series with Living Single, the writer-producer’s impact runs much deeper than that groundbreaking achievement. For over three decades, Bowser’s been putting Black stories on screen and opening the doors for other storytellers to do the same. With shows like A Different World, Dear White People, and Black-ish on her résumé, she’s successfully ridden the unpredictable waves of the television industry.
Books were the first stories that a young Bowser got lost in thanks to her mother, who was a voracious reader. “She got me reading at a very early age and I just enjoyed immersing myself in other worlds,” she tells EW, noting that two of her favorites were The Color Purple by Alice Walker and Beloved by Toni Morrison. “What they were able to do in terms of the depth and emotional connection was really powerful. You could feel the love and understanding they had for the characters in their stripes. I try to do that in my work.”
Bowser could have become a novelist, but in the ’70s and ’80s there was a dearth of stories being told about Black people on screen, which is why she chose to go into television. She wanted to use her talent to give the generations after her what she didn’t see while growing up.
Getting started
In 1987, Bowser began her career as one of several apprentices on A Different World and eventually worked her way up to producer during the 1991-1992 season. That experience set the tone for the storyteller she is today. “I definitely became hyper aware of how powerful the medium was,” she says of working on The Cosby Show spin-off that followed Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) to Hillman College. During the years the show was on the air, there was a rise in applications to HBCUs (historically Black colleges and universities), and the way Black people felt seen by the series to such a degree fueled Bowser.
Next, she worked on Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper, but the dynamics of that writers’ room made her miss the “wonderful and nurturing” environment she had on A Different World. Thus, Bowser’s journey to making Living Single began with her wanting to not only re-create the culture of A Different World, but to be more intentional with the stories and work environments she was creating. “I’ve written shows that have diverse casts, but everything I’ve written has been Black centered — and it will be,” she says. “That’s what I’m here to do.”
Making history
At just 27 years old, creating Living Single was a huge personal win for Bower as a storyteller. But looking back on it today, she remembers it feeling like a cultural win. “Black people are always creating American culture, and yet we were disproportionately absent from the television landscape,” she says.
Her series about six friends living in a Brooklyn brownstone — which ran from 1993 to 1998 on Fox — is celebrated for its positive portrayal of multi-dimensional Black professionals. “There was a spectrum of Blackness because they’re not all from the same place and don’t have the same point of view, yet they coexist in this chosen family environment,” she explains. “That was the impetus for the whole thing — to tell our stories from our point of view.” And viewers loved it. Living Single went on to become one of the most popular Black sitcoms in television history and even inspired NBC’s Friends.
The impact of Living Single is proven in the reverence people have for it three decades after it premiered. “We are 35 years from A Different World and 30 years from Living Single, and generations are still being inspired and driven by those works, which is incredibly rewarding and humbling,” she shares. “Decades later, there’s no greater reward to a writer than to know your work not only resonated at the time in which you wrote it, but it’s still having that ripple effect. Inspiring them to do great things, to become journalists like Khadijah James [Queen Latifah] and public servants and attorneys like Maxine Shaw [Erika Alexander]… It’s everything.”
Black people are always creating American culture, and yet we were disproportionately absent from the television landscape.
— YVETTE LEE BOWSER
If Bowser could go back and talk to the 27-year-old who launched Living Single, she’d applaud her for staying true to the story she wanted to tell as a young writer. Executives wanted Bowser to take Maxine out of the show, and while she was committed to the series, that was a concession she was unwilling to make. “I said to take Maxine Shaw out of the show is to take me out of the show and I’d rather not do the show at all,” she recalls. “So I stood my ground and the show wouldn’t be the same without all four of those women and those two guys.”
After Living Single, Bowser went on to work on a number of shows, including For Your Love and Half & Half, because she enjoys the collaborative nature of television. “I just love to build character and then examine relationships in ways that the creator did or didn’t initially envision,” she says. While she’s often asked if she’ll write a movie (which she admits she may one day), she is still enthralled by longform storytelling. Characters get to be refined as a show is made and that’s how new things can be uncovered. Bowser highlights the stark difference between seasons 1 and 2 of A Different World after the staff toured HBCUs and brought on Debbie Allen as a producer: “We got a chance to break out in season 2 and we really ran with it. That was further evidence to me for what was possible in the medium,” she says, adding that is why she advises young writers to have clear vision, but to always leave room for discovery.
A Different World
‘A Different World’ cast (clockwise from top): Glynn Turman, Dawnn Lewis, Lou Myers, Charnele Brown, Cree Summer, Darryl M. Bell, Jasmine Guy, and Kadeem Hardison. NBCU PHOTO BANK
Opening the door for others
Since she’s been telling stories for over three decades, how does Bowser stay inspired and engaged in her work? By constantly creating new challenges for herself, such as collaborating with other creators to enhance their visions — like when she teamed up with Kenya Barris on Black-ish and Justin Simien on Dear White People.
From the beginning, the opportunity to mentor young writers was a must for Bowser. “Going back to A Different World, Gina Prince-Bythewood was my first mentee,” she recalls of Prince-Blythewood, who is now a director of such films as The Woman King. During a recent Writers Guild conversation, The Kings of Napa creator Janine Sherman Barrois remembered a period where a lot of people working at Warner Bros. had either started working with Bowser or were recommended by her. “It was such a privilege to be in that position where I could open the door and let people in,” says Bowser of that time. ‘I have the greatest sense of accomplishment from providing access and opportunity.”
While she’s elated to be part of the “tremendous progress” made in terms of the diversity on television today, Bowser still sees a need for diversity when it comes to the gatekeepers of the industry, who she believes operate out of fear. “The gatekeepers need to let in more varied voices,” she says. “There are a lot of new fresh, wonderful points of view and society would benefit from more diversity in terms of who the product is coming from.” Fortunately, she does see some movement in the right direction thanks to platforms like Hulu’s Onyx Collective, which promotes projects from and about Black people, including Unprisoned, a new comedy starring Kerry Washington and Delroy Lindo.
Another area where she feels more needs to be done is the amount of marketing and PR dollars spent on Black shows. Bowser remembers that Dear White People didn’t get much awareness until after George Floyd’s death, which resulted in viewership going up 600% because people went looking for it. “Also, the talent that the industry at large regards as marketable is still more limited than it should be,” she explains, referencing Sheryl Lee Ralph, who is rightfully having an incredible moment that started after the debut of Abbott Elementary. “There are people in this industry who are treating her existence like it’s new, a revelation. She should have been getting flowers all along. She was certainly getting them from me and others. She’s not the only one, but she’s such a prime example.”
Something to celebrate
Over the course of her career, Bowser has seen many television shows centering on Black people disregarded and not positioned to succeed after being developed. “Not that I wasn’t grateful for those opportunities on some of those platforms, but there were a lot of talented people in various ranks whose careers didn’t get traction as a result of those platforms going away and shrinking in the early 2000s,” she explains. A prime example of this was the end of UPN, a channel that featured shows like Bowser’s Half & Half. Most of the network’s shows were canceled when UPN and the WB merged to become the CW — and those that made the jump to the new network didn’t last long.
Today, she’s encouraged by the way current shows from and about Black people are being celebrated. Instead of getting an abrupt ending like many of UPN’s programs, critically acclaimed series such as Insecure and Atlanta are now receiving the fanfare of planned farewells. Shows that feature predominantly Black casts are reaching wider audiences. “I love seeing the accolades for Abbott Elementary!” exclaims Bowser, while also acknowledging the stellar work of creators such as the previously mentioned Claws showrunner Sherman Barrois, as well as Nkechi Okoro Carroll, who is responsible for bringing the All American universe to life.
When asked about what’s next for the iconic creator, she mentions one dream project. “I have an idea for an anthology series that has been in the creative cauldron for a while. It’s just the timing and finding the right platforms and partners,” Bowser reveals, noting the project would not only allow her to work with several actors, writers, and directors on her bucket list, but also reunite her with talent she has worked with in the past.
Until then, we can look forward to season 2 of Run the World and Unprisoned (out March 10), Bowser’s first true dramedy, this year. The latter is inspired by the life of author Tracy McMillan and centers on a single mother whose dad gets out of prison and moves in with her and her teenage son. “It’s a love story about a family trying to heal after decades of separation,” previews Bowser, who serves as the Hulu series’ showrunner and is honored she is getting to work with McMillan to bring her very first show to audiences. After all, that’s what Bowser was born to do.
“It’s about helping writers who have a clearer vision and something to say. That’s incredibly rewarding and I will continue to do that in the future,” she says. “There are quite a few writers I would love to put to work and there are quite a few actors that deserve more of a platform. That’s what my future looks like until they snap the lid on my coffin — creating opportunities for others.”