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Screenwriter And Producer Amy Aniobi On Why Comedy And Relatability Are Powerful Storytelling Tools


Amy Aniobi fell in love with writing in college, but she never imagined she’d someday be writing for television. “I was an American studies major, and I was like, ‘this will never be worth anything in the real world.’ Now it’s literally my job.”

Aniobi, who has written for and executive produced shows including Insecure and 2 Dope Queens, constantly has her finger on the pulse of American culture. “It all comes back to telling an emotionally resonant story,” says Aniobi. 

“I don’t really ascribe to this theory that to inform or to connect people or to talk about serious topics, we have to be serious all the time,” she adds. “I think that comedy helps bridge the gap between informing and actually feeling. Laughing is our ability to have catharsis around emotional events, whether they’re big or small.”

Her storytelling career shows no signs of slowing down: Aniobi is signed by HBO and Universal to produce original content. Part of this deal includes an HBO Max workplace comedy series inspired by the alleged toxic, racist behavior of leadership at the food publication Bon Appétit

Forbes spoke to Aniobi about comedy’s role in telling impactful stories, where she finds inspiration and the importance of having Black and Brown professionals in writers’ rooms. 

Forbes: Where do you think your passion for comedy writing came from? 

Amy Aniobi: I was a child of immigrants, Nigerian immigrants, raised in north Texas. And I was, like, the one Black kid in my school, besides my brother. So literally, when people said, ‘oh, I know a Black person, do you know them?’ The answer was, ‘yes, that’s my brother.’ So it’s just a funny origin. And it’s uncomfortable and weird. I obviously encountered racism as a child and had no name for it, because I just didn’t know what to call it. I just feel like the dynamic that I was raised in was something that sort of lended itself to me becoming a comedy writer, not only coming from a Nigerian culture, which is steeped in storytelling, but I’ve always been an observer of people.

And I think that’s what comedy does, it looks at our society and our culture and our relationships, the way we relate to each other, and pokes fun at it. And I think as someone who was constantly observing as a child, and also watching sitcoms with my parents, and explaining all the jokes to them, and, like, why things are funny, it almost naturally made sense.

Forbes: How can comedy be a means for effective, impactful storytelling?

Aniobi: I don’t love stories where it’s like, look at me, I’m a Black person. I prefer stories [where] we are already people. And we don’t have to explain our humanity. And we’re going through the same thing that any other person would go through, but heightened because of our cultural specificity and experience. Those are the stories that I like to tell the most. And those are the stories I’m most attracted to watching. Those that deal with real issues.

It’s so funny that there are people who think that that [messages] can’t come through humor. I get a lot of my news from John Oliver and SNL Weekend Update. I’m hearing the news and also laughing and also being amused or feeling like some sort of cathartic amusement from the satire. I think they go hand in hand as human experience. I love dramas, too. I like dramatic storytelling, but I don’t think that it’s one or the other. We can talk about culture in both platforms. And both are valid.

Forbes: It seems like there’s been a wave of shows inspired by real-life events, the forthcoming Bon Appétit-inspired series included. What do you think is behind this trend? 

Aniobi: As a culture, we love reality TV. And [shows inspired by real-life events] feel like fictionalized reality. But even for things that are based on real-life events, for me, it’s always about real-life emotion. Eventually you have to take license. 

The [Bon Appétit-inspired series] is about media, and all of the takedowns that happened from Lucky Peach to LA Times to Essence magazine to Tidal, there were takedowns across so many industries. What I hope in the building of the show is that, for better or for worse, people go, ‘this reminds me of my job.’ It all comes back to telling an emotionally resonant story.

Forbes: What value as a Black woman do you bring to the writers room, and why should Hollywood prioritize greater representation in the writers room? 

Aniobi: Black and Brown people in the writers room is imperative, because of our cultural perspective. There’s something inherently known between people who have similar cultural backgrounds that I can feel. When I watch shows that have Black characters with no Black writers, you feel it. It’s not how they talk, it’s not what they say, it’s not how they move, it’s not what we’re wearing, it’s not their hair, it’s all of it. For instance, on Scandal, when Olivia took a shower with the president and we saw her wet hair, Black women across the country were like ‘oh, she must really love him.’ There was a cultural moment. 

And here’s the thing, to be a Hollywood writer, as a Black person, it means you have been in some white spaces, whether it’s through the institution where we’ve been educated, the music we listen to, the places where we’ve learned how to write, the stand-up shows we watch, the improv classes we’ve taken to get better at our writing. We have been in white spaces. So by the time we get to that room, we can write them and write us. They can’t write us. Black writers are two writers in one. Writers of color in general are two writers in one. We’re an asset in every room. 

Forbes: What’s been the most fulfilling part of your career thus far?

Aniobi: I feel the most valuable part of my journey is leaving a legacy. I want to be immortal. I don’t ever want to die. I want my stories to live beyond me. I want the people who I’ve helped to succeed to succeed past me. I want to empower other writers, I want to uplift other voices that are different from mine. I want to be the wind under the wings of people who are moving forward in this industry, just like I had people do that for me. Through doing that, that is my legacy—being able to impact other writers.



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