Issa Rae Brings Her ‘Insecure’ 10-Year Anniversary Tour to Oakland
When Issa Rae’s Insecure debuted a decade ago, the show quickly became a cultural phenomenon. Across four seasons, the HBO series followed the fictional Issa Dee and her Los Angeles group of friends — all professional Black women in their late 20s and early 30s — as they navigated dating misadventures and career ambitions with humor and style.
The show arrived during a drought for nuanced Black stories on screen, and quickly attracted a massive, multicultural fanbase. In their living rooms, and on Twitter, fans would spend hours unpacking each episode’s social commentary. Ten years later, Issa’s quest to find herself after leaving a dead-end relationship and problematic nonprofit job still feels relevant.
Today, Rae announced that she’s taking Insecure on a 10-year anniversary tour, with a stop at Oakland’s Fox Theater on Sept. 26. She and showrunner Prentice Penny will be in conversation with Yvonne Orji (who played Issa’s lawyer best friend Molly), Jay Ellis (whose arc as Issa’s ex Lawrence sparked heated gender debates) and Natasha Rothwell (who, as Issa’s lovably chaotic friend Kelli, brought much-needed comic relief to all the drama).
Tickets for the Fox Theater show go on sale to the general public on July 16 at noon, but fans can access a presale on July 15 at noon with the password “souley.”
With a massive Insecure fanbase in the Bay Area, the Oakland tour stop is bound to feel a bit like a homecoming. The real-life Issa Rae and her character Issa Dee both went to Stanford, and Lawrence’s tech ambitions take him to San Francisco in Insecure’s final season. Oakland R&B superstar Raphael Saadiq masterminded the show’s soundtrack, which featured Bay Area artists like Kamaiyah, G-Eazy and P-Lo among a standout selection of alternative rap and R&B.