Yvette Lee Bowser

Yvette Denise Lee Bowser (née Lee; born June 9, 1965) is an American television writer and producer best known for creating the Fox sitcom Living Single. With Living Single, she became the first African-American woman to develop her own primetime series.

Early life and education Yvette Denise Lee was born in Philadelphia in 1965. Her father was black and her mother was white. She was an only child. Bowser grew up in Los Angeles. She attended Santa Monica High School and was homecoming queen. She was classmates there with Holly Robinson Peete and Lori Petty,

Career Bowser was introduced to Bill Cosby who put her on his show, A Different World, as an unpaid apprentice writer in 1987. She produced a season of the television show Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, but she found the experience isolating as the only Black woman writer. Living Single was named one of Variety’s “100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time” in 2023. Bowser said that much of the series' storylines came from her or her friends' personal experience. Lush Life was canceled in its first season. Bowser next created and ran For Your Love, a comedy featuring a Black and a White couple navigating marriage. For Your Love ran from 1998 to 2002.

Bowser consulted on Black-ish.

Bowser was showrunner for Dear White People, a Netflix 2017 comedy-drama created by Justin Simien. Bowser was the showrunner for Unprisoned, a Hulu series that ran for two season from 2023 to 2024.

Style Bowser said in an interview that she draws many of her characters and plots from her own and her friends' personal experiences. In the case of Half & Half, for example, the writer based the characters Mona and Dee-Dee on herself and an older half-sister, and plot ideas came from her experience as the youngest child in a blended family.

Personal life Yvette Denise Lee married producer Kyle Bowser in 1994. The two have worked together on Yvette's shows. They have two children, Evan and Drew.

Filmography