Ashley Nicole Black — Emmy-winning writer, actor and producer who has brought her talents to shows as disparate as “A Black Lady Sketch Show” and the feel-good Apple TV+ hit “Ted Lasso” — knows her new deal with Warner Bros. TV invites comparisons to other content dealmakers, particularly if they happen to be female writer-performers who can claim a history in sketch or stand-up comedy.
And she’s not having it. Black says her exclusive, multiyear, multiplatform pact with Warner Bros. Television Group, announced in December (terms were not disclosed), has actually helped her begin to shake off the “she’s the next…” addition that used to inevitably trail after her name.
“You know, what’s actually cool is, I’ve just gotten out of that with this deal,” the 36-year-old told TheWrap.
So who isn’t she these days?
“When I first started, I was going to be the next Amy Schumer or the next Mindy Kaling,” said Black, who will be hosting this month’s Writers Guild Awards in addition to being a nominee for her work on “Ted Lasso” Season 2. “And I actually met Mindy recently and told her how grateful I was for her, because there were so few writer-performers that it was hard to explain to people what you wanted to do.”
“But you could say, ‘You know [I want to do] what Tina Fey does, or what Mindy Kaling does, and that list is, like, pretty short,” Black added with a laugh. “I was lucky that I had those people to be compared to so that the career that I was looking for wasn’t like completely alien. But I think I’d just gotten out of the phases of being a baby Mindy Kaling and being an Ashley Nicole Black type.”
Black is among a flurry of talented performers and creators who have been snapped up, or locked down, for extended deals by Warner Bros. TV in recent months.
In November, Lena Waithe (“Master of None”), formerly under an overall deal with Amazon Studios, and her business partner Rish Rajani signed an overall deal with Warner through their Hillman Grad Productions; a first project is a “Hoop Dreams” series. “Ted Lasso” star Brett Goldstein signed a multiyear deal with Warner in January, followed by “Ted Lasso” showrunner Bill Lawrence renewing his long-standing contract through 2028. And last month, Steve Yockey, creator of “The Flight Attendant,” expanded his relationship with the company through an exclusive, multiyear overall deal.
Black said her deal was a natural outgrowth of her work on “A Black Lady Sketch Show” for WarnerMedia-owned HBO as well as her writing duties on “Lasso,” produced by Warner for Apple TV+. She also was a writer and correspondent for TBS’ “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,” also from Warner Bros., and is involved in “Bad Monkey,” an upcoming series that is a co-production of Warner Bros. and Lawrence’s Doozer Productions. “It just made sense. Like, I’m here. I’m already here, guys,” she joked.
For his part, Lawrence said the ongoing relationship with Black is more than just a case of tapping the talent that’s nearest at hand. “My career nowadays seems to be hitching my wagon to talented young people and hoping they’ll eventually hire me someday. Ashley is a perfect example,” he told TheWrap.
Lawrence noted that Black fit right into the “Ted Lasso” circle when Jason Sudeikis hired her for the show’s second season. “She immediately fit right in. Such a strong writer with a great voice and she’s also excellent at story,” he said. “Someday, I expect to be one of the many people who claims to have discovered her, but that’s neither true nor relevant. Ashley’s talent is undeniable. She will be doing her own show that she writes and stars in before you know it.”
Black’s credits also include writing for Amber Ruffin’s late-night talk show, and Ruffin couldn’t agree more with Lawrence’s assessment. “I cannot believe we got to work with Ashley. Every show wants her because word got out about her being one of the best writers on the planet. The girl is severely gifted,” Ruffin told TheWrap.
Black, a minister’s daughter who grew up just outside of Los Angeles, said she was introduced to Lawrence between seasons of “A Black Lady Sketch Show” by her good friend — and comedian — Emily Heller. She and Lawrence found a kinship in loving comedy with a heart rather than an edge that led her into the “Lasso” writers room.
Although she describes herself as “not a sporty person,” Black added, “I like writing those huge locker room scenes. I like marshaling so many characters into a scene and trying to get everyone to laugh, playing with those group dynamics.”
Black met Sudeikis much earlier in her comic evolution, while following up a degree in theater arts from UC Santa Cruz with grad school at Northwestern University and doing sketch comedy at Second City in nearby Chicago at night.
Sketch comedy clicked for her more than academe. “As much as I loved acting and that was what I always wanted to do, I was missing the part where you write the script. At Second City, everybody is a writer-producer,” she said.
When Black first thought about performing, she observed that there were “not many people who looked like me” in Hollywood. Now, she feels like social media has evened the playing field. “The audience is more able to tell us what they want to see,” she mused. “And it should not be a surprise that they want to see themselves reflected.”
