Jessica Gao on ‘She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’

Larry is joined by Emmy Award-winning writer and producer Jessica Gao to talk about her new Disney+ series ‘She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’. They begin their conversation by talking about how they became friends, why she wanted to develop a show around She-Hulk, and her personal connection to the character. Next, Jessica details her journey from comic book fan to comic book TV and movie writer via her experiences working at a comic book store at a young age and the subsequent opportunities that presented themselves after contributing to a writing fellowship at Nickelodeon.(11:08) This leads to a discussion about the importance of identifying career “indicators” that reveal the value of your work and consistently learning your craft when starting out.(27:45) Jessica then describes her struggle to avoid being pigeonholed as a Chinese-American woman in a white male-dominated Hollywood machine and maintain representation within her projects and throughout the industry.(32:54) After the break, Larry and Jessica break down the challenges of putting together a Marvel show and praise the incredible work of the ‘She-Hulk’ cast, particularly lead actress Tatiana Maslany.(37:07) They end the pod by looking forward to the rest of the show’s first season and Jessica shares some very amusing anecdotes about her parents.(54:22)

Host: Larry Wilmore

Guest: Jessica Gao

Producer: Chris Sutton

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