Issa Rae, Shonda Rhimes And More Recognized For Gender-Balanced Hiring Practices In Hollywood

Shonda Rhimes, Issa Rae, Lena Waithe and Ava Duvernay are among a select group of Hollywood visionaries being recognized for their consistent efforts to implement gender-balanced hiring within the staff who help bring their groundbreaking television shows to life.

According to Variety, the TV juggernauts were recognized among a group of showrunners and show creators with the first-ever ReFrame Stamp for Television.

“The ReFrame Stamp was created by ReFrame, a coalition of industry professionals founded by Women in Film and the Sundance Institute, to recognize projects that have demonstrated success in gender-balanced hiring,” Variety reports. “Productions that receive the stamp are those that hire female-identifying people in four out of eight critical areas of production, including writing, directing, showrunning, producing, lead acting roles, season regular acting roles, department heads, and crew members. Those series must reflect diversity across all of the season, not just specific episodes.”

ReFrame and IMDbPro awarded 62 television and streaming programs with the honor. Rae’s Insecure received a stamp, as well as all five of Rhime’s television shows (For the People, Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder, Scandal and Station 19). Others that made the list include Lee Daniels’ Empire, Lena Waithe’s The Chi and Ava Duvernay’s Queen Sugar.

“The power of these things is that there will be people that are thrilled they got the stamp and people who go, ‘I wish I got the stamp — but I didn’t, so what can I do to get it?’” says Nina Jacobson, producer and ReFrame Ambassador. “It gives decision-makers the opportunity to chase it and to change course and to look at the room you’re in, the set you’re on, and say, ‘Am I paying attention? Every time I make a hire, am I paying attention?’”

Congrats to these showrunners on their well-deserved recognition as they continue to lead the charge for change in Hollywood.