As a veteran in the fast-paced world of network television, Raamla Mohamed has learned how to craft TV magic—swiftly. “My writing process is like Maxwell,” says Mohamed, 43. “Whenever, wherever, whatever.”
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00:00As a Black woman in a leadership position, it's very important for me to have other Black women in production, on set.
00:07And the more that other people see us in various roles, whether it's a PA or someone like me who's a showrunner,
00:13it just normalizes us being in this world and having these roles.
00:17And when I have PAs or ADs or anyone working on set and they see me there and they see me in charge,
00:25I think it is inspiring for them to know, okay, I can do this.
00:30I mean, as someone who has gone to the brunch a few times, I remember even before I went to the brunch,
00:41seeing it online and thinking, wow, I can't believe all these Black women are in one room.
00:46And so just having then gotten invited into the room was one thing.
00:51But to get this honor, I honestly, I thought when I got the email it was an invite to go.
00:56And then I was reading, I was like, wait, they're honoring me?
01:00I would say I was very fortunate early on in my career to work for Shonda Rhimes and work on Scandal.
01:05And that show was so important to a lot of Black women.
01:09You know, Kerry Washington was the first Black woman to be on television in 37 years.
01:14And for me, seeing how that impacted other Black women, how people showed up for Kerry,
01:20how people showed up for Shonda and the support of that show.
01:24And also that it was a hit show, that people did want to see Black women on TV.
01:28That made me really be inspired to want to put more Black women on television.
01:38A lot of times I feel like we have to be one or the other.
01:41You know, we either are ratchet or professional.
01:43And I think it really separates us as Black women.
01:46And for me, I feel like a lot of my friends are both.
01:49And so, and there's nothing wrong with it.
01:51We can be all different things.
01:53You know, we can want to listen to Juvenile, but also, you know, be in a courtroom.
01:57And so, for me, I really want to see more characters on television that represent that dichotomy
02:03and show that we are not just one voice.
02:05I'm really excited about season three of Reasonable Doubt.
02:08And I'm excited to tell more stories about Jax and Lewis and all the characters on that show.
02:13But as far as themes, what I really want to tell more stories about is just mental health,
02:18particularly in the Black community.
02:20And it doesn't have to be in any kind of preachy way, but I also think that, you know,
02:25even our community therapy is kind of looked down upon or some people don't understand that.
02:29And so, I really want to be able to tell more stories where people are going to therapy,
02:34you know, addressing mental health issues, whether they're extreme or just, you know, everyday anxiety.
02:39And I think that's important to make sure that people understand what that is.
02:43My writing process before when I was a young writer, I would say I was very stressed out a lot.
02:49It took me a long time to try to get things together.
02:52The more confident I got, the more experience I got, you know, it took a shorter amount of time.
02:57Also, I worked in network television.
02:59So, you know, it was 22 episodes a season.
03:02And so, I got used to writing fast, used to writing on set.
03:05And so, luckily, it prepared me for this job where sometimes I don't have the luxury to have quiet time to write.
03:11So, I would say my writing process is like Maxwell, whenever, wherever, whatever.
03:16I'm going to give flowers to this person because even though I know a lot of people, like, I mean, I can say Kerry Washington, Shonda Rhimes, Issa Rae, Lena Waithe.
03:30But one person I will say is Nkechi Carroll because she is someone who was working in this industry.
03:36I met her. She was like a supervising producer, a co-executive producer.
03:41And, you know, she was someone I could just reach out to and talk to just about being a black writer in this industry.
03:47And she was very accessible.
03:49And now I'm just so happy for her because, you know, at one point she had three shows on the air and she is still the exact same person.
03:55Like, I could text her right now and ask her a question.
03:58And so, she's someone that I think really deserves her flowers.
04:04I hope what people say about my legacy is two things.
04:08One, they enjoyed my shows.
04:10And two, that they enjoyed working with me because I never want to be the subject of anyone's therapy session.
04:16You know what I really would like to see for black women for the next 10 years in Hollywood is honestly not only that we sustain what we're doing, but also improve our station.
04:27Because, you know, Hollywood is in an interesting impasse right now.
04:32And sometimes when our industry changes, that means that black women, black men, people of color get ousted in some ways out of our industry.
04:40So, I'm hoping that there's more opportunities in fact.
04:43And I also think that people in general are wanting to see more complicated characters of color on screen and hear our stories.
04:51And so, I'm hoping that because of the successes of, you know, Reasonable Doubt or other shows that power, you know, that people really understand that there is not only interest in black people on television, but also there's a place for us.