Tracy Oliver

Tracy Yvonne Oliver is a screenwriter, producer, director, and actress. Oliver originally starred in the web series The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl (2011–2012) before serving as a writer on two comedy television series: ABC's The Neighbors (2012–2014) and Starz's Survivor's Remorse (2014–2015). Oliver also created and executive produced the comedy Harlem for Amazon Prime Video (2021-2025)

Oliver has co-written three movies: Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016), Girls Trip (2017), and Little (2019), with Girls Trip making her the first African-American woman to write a film that grossed over US$100 million. Oliver also created and wrote the BET television series First Wives Club and wrote the screenplay to the 2019 film adaptation of The Sun Is Also a Star.

Career Oliver is originally from South Carolina. She attended Stanford University, where she double majored in American studies and drama with hopes of becoming an actress, before becoming disillusioned with the roles she was getting. There, she met Issa Rae in a drama class, where the two first collaborated. After graduating from Stanford, Oliver attended the USC School of Cinematic Arts and graduated in 2010 with a Master's of Fine Arts in producing for film, television and new media. After earning her master's, Oliver created the black theater company Black Stage. She portrayed Nina, the antagonist in Rae's web series The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl, from 2011 to 2012. In addition to acting in Awkward Black Girl, Oliver also served as a writer and producer. Oliver wrote and circulated a spec script for a movie called Marriage Is for White People based on the "aggressive erasure of people of color" she observed in the 2009 romantic comedy film He's Just Not That Into You. The script got the attention of Dan Fogelman, who had the same manager as Oliver at the time and soon hired her as a writer on ABC's comedy-science fiction series The Neighbors, which ran from 2012 to 2014. Oliver then became a staff writer and story editor on the Starz comedy-drama television series Survivor's Remorse.

She re-teamed with Barris on the 2019 film Little, which he co-produced and she co-wrote; she also received a "story by" credit. Her first solo feature film writing credit came with the 2019 film The Sun Is Also a Star, an adaptation of the 2016 Nicola Yoon novel of the same name, which she also executive produced. Oliver was the showrunner and executive producer for the BET+ television series First Wives Club, an adaptation of the 1996 film of the same name with an all-black lead cast consisting of Jill Scott, Ryan Michelle Bathe, and Michelle Buteau. Its first season, which ran in 2019 and whose episodes were each directed exclusively by women directors, received critical praise, and it was renewed for a second season. She directed an episode of the show, making her directorial debut. Oliver serves as creator, writer, and executive producer of the Amazon Studios half-hour television series Harlem, a single camera comedy starring Meagan Good, Grace Byers, Jerrie Johnson and Shoniqua Shandai. Malcolm D. Lee, who directed Girl's Trip, directed the first two episodes. Oliver has also been reported to be writing a reboot to the 1995 film Clueless. Oliver was included on the 2020 Ebony Power 100 List. In March 2021, she signed an overall deal with Apple through her production company, Tracy Yvonne Productions.

Oliver also runs a production company, Tracy Yvonne Productions.

Filmography Television Year(s) Series Functioned as Writer Creator Executive producer Actress Director 2011–2012 The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl 2014–2015 Survivor's Remorse 2021–2025 Harlem

Film Year Film Functioned as Notes Writer Executive producer Director 2016 Barbershop: The Next Cut 2017 Girls Trip 2019 Little The Sun Is Also a Star 2022 The Blackening