Representation matters in all facets of life, TV included. As a form of education, escape, and entertainment, TV shows influence our lives more than we think. And the more they tell diverse stories on screen, the more they reflect the world in real life.
We have a long way to go, but every show with a diverse cast or a woman of color in a lead role is a step in the right direction. Here are some of the best diverse TV shows to add to your watch list.
Insecure
Insecure is basically a longer-formin version of Awkward Black Girl, Issa Rae’s popular Youtube series. Rae plays a fictionalized version of herself, as a Black woman living in LA, working at a non-profit organization, and navigating platonic and romantic relationships, often unsuccessfully. Her struggle to master adulthood is funny, messy, awkward, and totally relatable. Race is part of the show, but it’s not the main focus. Instead, Rae has described the show as being about “regular black people living life.”
Over four seasons, you watch Issa and her friends mature into their own skins as well as in their relationships (with a few exceptions along the way, such as an absolutely bonkers Coachella episode in Season 3). Each season has a theme with all the episodes similarly named. Season 4, for example, includes “Lowkey Losin’ It” and “Lowkey Feelin’ Myself.” Watch it on: HBO
I May Destroy You
Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You is one of the buzziest new shows of the year, and it’s not hard to see why. The show centers around Arabella (played by Coel), a London-based writer, who during a night out, has her drink spiked and is sexually assaulted. The show focuses on what happens afterward, as Arabella tries to put together both the hazy events of the night as well as the broken pieces of her life. Each episode deals with the violation of someone’s consent—Arabella’s two BFFs have their own incidents—and some are more overt than others.
The show is loosely based on Coel’s real-life experience of sexual assault earlier in her career, and she doesn’t shy away from difficult situations or uncomfortable conversations. Despite the heaviness, there are also moments of humor and true friendship. For something lighter, Coel also created and starred in the British comedy, Chewing Gum, about a religious young woman trying to lose her virginity. Watch it on: HBO
Never Have I Ever
In Never Have I Ever, Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) is an Indian-American student in Sherman Oaks who temporarily lost the use of her legs after the traumatizing loss of her father, and is determined to come back stronger than ever her sophomore year. First on the list is to get boyfriends for herself and her BFFs, Eleanor, a theater nerd, and Fabiola, an engineering nerd. Unsurprisingly, Devi’s quest for popularity does not go as smoothly as expected. Meanwhile, at home, she has a strict Indian mother watching over her every move, and a beautiful cousin who is being prepped for an arranged marriage. Created by Mindy Kaling, Never Have I Ever is a coming of age story that’s sweet, awkward, and weird, just like high school itself. Watch it on: Netflix
Dear White People
The show’s title comes from a radio show hosted by bi-racial student Sam White (Logan Browning), who attends fictional Winchester University, a predominantly white Ivy League school. Season 1 mainly follows the storyline of the 2014 movie of the same name. The black students predominantly live at Armstrong-Parker House, the campus’ historically black residence hall, where various groups not only meet to discuss racial relations but also get together for a weekly TV viewing of Defamation (a parody on Shonda Rhimes’ Scandal). Sam’s radio show and the show itself both touch on themes of institutionalized racism, police brutality, microaggressions, and other issues that sadly are just as, if not more, relevant today as they were when the show premiered in 2017. Watch it on: Netflix
Black-ish
Black-ish, created by Kenya Barris, centers around the Johnson family: Rainbow (Tracee Ellis Ross), a successful doctor, Dre (Anthony Anderson), a successful advertising exec, and their five children. While the show has smart, funny takes on everyday family things like sibling rivalry, coordinated family Halloween costumes, and meddling in-laws, it also delves into more serious issues around race. There have been entire episodes focused around Juneteenth and police brutality, and a previously unaired episode about the state of America in the Trump era was recently released on Hulu.
The appeal of the show has led to two spinoffs, Grown-ish and Mixed-ish, and Harris also created Black AF for Netflix, where he plays a (hopefully) exaggerated version of himself. Watch it on: ABC or Hulu
Jane the Virgin
Jane the Virgin starts with Jane, a devout virgin, who accidentally gets artificially inseminated by her gynecologist–and it only gets more outrageous from there. The show has everything a traditional telenovela has and more—a deep-voiced narrator, a love triangle, a nefarious drug lord, evil twins, someone coming back from the dead, and more than one plot twist. But it’s also a show the importance of love, familial and romantic, chasing your dreams, and happy endings. And given all that’s going on in the world, sometimes a telenovela really is the perfect escape.
A Black Lady Sketch Show
Sketch shows are rare these days; try to name one other than Saturday Night Live. A Black Lady Sketch Show brings back that format (and was just nominated for an Emmy for Best Variety Sketch Series), and as the name suggests, stars all black women. It was created by Robin Thede, executive produced by Issa Rae, and has a revolving door of guest stars that most shows dream of, including Rae herself, Laverne Cox, Nicole Byer, Kelly Rowland, Angela Bassett, Lena Waithe. The sketches are quick and quick-witted, thanks to the core cast of Thede, Ashley Nicole Black, Gabrielle Dennis, and Quinta Brunson, who all tackle various characters and pop culture references. Watch it on: HBO
Killing Eve
This darkly comedic British spy thriller is about a cat-and-mouse game between Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), an MI6 security officer, and Villanelle (Jodie Comer), the sociopathic assassin she is trying to track down and capture. Eve is vaguely reminiscent of Oh’s other iconic character, Grey’s Anatomy’s Cristina Yang—both are brilliantly ambitious women whose dogged pursuits of professional excellence often come at the expense of their personal lives. In Killing Eve, Eve’s obsession with Villanelle becomes personal, and sometimes it’s unclear who is hunting who. The show is a powerhouse of female talent in front of and behind the camera. In addition to Oh, Comer’s outrageous yet terrifying Villanelle and Fiona Shaw’s icy smart Carolyn Martens (head of the MI6 Russia desk) are wonderful to watch.
Created by Phoebe Waller Bridge, the show also has a tradition of passing the torch on to a new female head writer and showrunner each season. For her portrayal of Eve, Oh won the Golden Globe for Actress in a Drama Series in 2019 (and broke a few other records in the process as the first person of Asian descent to host the awards show, and the first woman of Asian descent to win more than one Globe).
Kim’s Convenience
Kim’s Convenience is a Canadian show about a Korean family who owns a convenience store in downtown Toronto. The store is mainly run by Mr. and Mrs. Kim, an immigrant couple. Their grown children do not follow the stereotypical Asian overachiever archetype—Janet attends photography school and her brother Jung, is a high school dropout that works at a car rental company. The show is kind-hearted even in its treatment of more serious issues, making it an easy binge. For example, in the first episode, in an effort to prove he’s not homophobic, Mr. Kim offers a “gay discount” in the store, but it manages to pull it off without being offensive. The show is now in its fourth season. Watch it on: Netflix
Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens
Some people know Awkwafina (aka Nora Lum) from her comedic roles in blockbuster movies like Crazy Rich Asians and Ocean’s 8 or her Golden-Globe winning dramatic turn in The Farewell. Others have loved her ever since her viral rap video, “My Vag.” In Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens, she plays a version of herself, though one that is remarkably less successful. Like in real life, her character’s name is Nora. She lives in Queens, has a widower father (B.D. Wong), and an influential grandmother (Lori Tan Chinn, likely more crass than Awkafina’s real-life grandmother). But fictional Nora struggles with the basic milestones of adulthood such as moving out of her family’s house, finding a steady job, and maintaining an active bank account. The show is coming back for a second season. Watch it on: Comedy Central
One Day at a Time
For a 30-minute sitcom, One Day at a Time touches on a lot of different issues—a working-class Cuban-American family with multiple generations living under one roof, a single mom who was formerly in the Army and is dealing with depression, a daughter who is gay—but it does so with a lot of heart and humor. The show is so beloved that when it was canceled by Netflix, both fans and critics were outraged. It’s since been picked up by Pop TV, where you can catch its fourth season and EGOT winner Rita Moreno in all her comedic glory. Watch it on: Pop TV
Which of these diverse TV shows have you seen? Tell us your favorites in the comments!
Join The Conversation (0)