Issa Rae is heading back to HBO, with the network ordering a new half-hour comedy pilot set against the high-pressure world of professional boxing.
The project, currently titled “Untitled Male Friendship Show,” reunites Rae with HBO after her previous overall deal with the network ended. The comedy is set in Las Vegas and centers on two longtime friends whose relationship becomes increasingly complicated as one of them finds himself on the fast track to fame.
At the heart of the story are Menzel, a 30-year-old barber who dreams of becoming a sports manager, and his best friend JB, a promising boxer whose career begins taking off.
As JB’s profile grows, their friendship is put under pressure by ambition, money, newfound attention and personal insecurity.
The pilot also brings back one of Rae’s key creative collaborators: Prentice Penny, who served as showrunner throughout all five seasons of Insecure. Penny is attached to the new project as showrunner, executive producer and director.
His television credits also include work on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Happy Endings, giving the new comedy another connection to the character-driven humor that helped define Rae’s HBO era.
The HBO project arrives at an interesting point in Rae’s career. During a recent appearance on the Not My Best Moment podcast, she spoke openly about feeling professionally stagnant because she did not currently have a television series airing.
“I know that I appear successful to other people, but right now, no, I feel really stagnant,” Rae said.
She added that she personally associates success with having her work on television.
The new pilot gives Rae another opportunity to return to the kind of character-focused storytelling that made Insecure a defining part of her career. Since that series ended in 2021, she has remained active as a producer, including executive-producing A Black Lady Sketch Show and creating the Miami-set music drama Rap Sh!t.
Rae is also operating under a multi-year first-look deal with Paramount, while the boxing comedy was developed during her previous relationship with HBO.
Executive producers on the pilot include Jax Clark for Rae’s Hoorae media company, along with Jonathan Berry and Dave Becky of 3 Arts Entertainment.
For Rae, the HBO pilot represents more than another television project. It marks a return to the network where she built one of her signature series — this time swapping Los Angeles for Las Vegas and workplace comedy for the volatile world of boxing, friendship and sudden fame.
