During her senior year of college, Issa Rae created her first series.
Posted on Facebook, Dorm Diaries didn’t attract the same audience as Issa Rae’s later shows, but the web series became enough of a hit for the actress-writer to feel inspired.
More specifically, the creator launched the first episode of Dorm Diaries, a micro-budget, soap opera-esque mockumentary series about life for Black students on Stanford’s campus, as The New York Times reports.
Much like The Real World, the college-based web show would alternate between sit-down confessionals and slice-of-life documentary-like footage.