Where was Issa Rae born? 'Insecure' star becomes the first person to receive the key to the city of Inglewood

Actress Issa Rae has received the key to Inglewood City at the Taste of Inglewood festival. She is the first person to get the key, and the ceremony was held across from the SoFi stadium where the Super Bowl game between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals was going on.

Being a native of Inglewood, Rae said she was emotional while delivering a speech on being granted the honor. She said:

“I’m a little emotional. I’m trying to be a thug right now. The mayor really kind of flabbergasted me in that this is the first key in 114 years, so that’s a huge honor. I just want to thank you all so much for your support – thank you to the mayor, thank you to the city of Inglewood for making it so easy for us to film here, for helping us showcase this city that I love that so much.”

Also known as Jo-Issa Rae Dop, she said that her grandparents were residents of that place and established her first point of view of Inglewood and loved the city themselves.

The Hair Love star also gave a shout-out to her collaborators and company members at Hoorae, who came to support her.

Issa has used various Inglewood locations in her comedy-drama series Insecure. There are also many Inglewood neighborhoods in the reality series Sweet Life: Los Angeles, where Rae serves as an executive producer.

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Early life of Issa Rae: Parents and Education

Issa Rae was born on January 12, 1985, in Los Angeles, California. Her father, Abdoulaye Diop, is a pediatrician and neonatologist from Senegal, while her mother, Delyna Drop, is a teacher from Louisiana.

Abdoulaye and Delyna first met in France when they were in school and Issa has four siblings. Abdoulaye also has a medical practice in Inglewood, California.

Issa Rae is mostly known for her appearance on HBO's Insecure (Image via Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images)

The Sesame Street star’s family were originally residents of Dakar, Senegal, for some time during her childhood. She was raised in Potomac, Maryland, and while she was in sixth grade, her family shifted to the View Park-Windsor Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The Saturday Night Live host then attended a mostly black middle school and graduated from King Drew Magnet High School of Medicine and Science. This is where she began acting.

The 37-year-old graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in African and African-American studies from Stanford University in 2007. She created music videos and wrote and directed plays while she was studying in college.

Issa Rae received her theater fellowship in New York’s The Public Theater and began taking classes with Tracy Oliver at the New York Film Academy.

She is mostly known as the co-creator, co-writer, and lead of the HBO series Insecure. She has received multiple nominations at the Golden Globes Awards and Primetime Emmy Awards for her performance in the show.