Mara Brock Akil

Mara Brock Akil (born May 27, 1970) is an American television producer, screenwriter and director. She became the youngest African American female showrunner and executive producer when she created the sitcom Girlfriends (2000–2008), airing on UPN and The CW, and the first African American female showrunner to have two series simultaneously on broadcast network television when she created its spin-off The Game (2006–15) on The CW before moving to BET.

She created BET's first drama series Being Mary Jane (2013–19) and The Game sequel (2021–22) on Paramount+. She co-created Love Is (2018) on OWN and executive produced the DC Arrowverse series Black Lightning (2018–21) on The CW. She was a writer on South Central (1994) on Fox and a writer and producer on Moesha (1996–99) on UPN, The Jamie Foxx Show (1999–2000) on The WB, Cougar Town (2010) on ABC and the theatrical film Sparkle (2012). Together with her husband and collaborator Salim Akil, the creative duo founded production company Akil Productions in 2000.

Brock Akil is the only African American showrunner to have series on broadcast network TV every year of the 2000s, and was the first to have two series and was the only to have two black sitcoms simultaneously that decade. She is the only African American showrunner or executive producer to have series on television almost every year of the 2000s and 2010s with the exception of 2016. Her series were two of the only three shows in 2007 and 2008 and was one of the only two shows in 2009 with a predominantly black cast on broadcast network TV.

She was born Mara Brock in 1970 in Compton, California, to Joan Carol Fullmore and William Bartido Brock II (later Wali Shamsuddin) who were high school sweethearts. Her brother William "Bill" Brock III was three years old at the time and their younger sister Kara Brock was born four years later. Her paternal grandmother was Candida Brock, her maternal grandfather was Johnn Fullmore and her maternal grandmother is Helen Fullmore. Mara lived her early childhood in Baldwin Hills in South Los Angeles, and lived her preteen and teenage years in and around Kansas City, Missouri, after her parents divorced when she was eight years old in 1977.

Her mother left with the children and moved to the Kansas City metropolitan area where she worked her way up from an entry-level position to a computer programmer at Marion Laboratories while raising Mara and her siblings as a single mother. At age 11 , Mara saw a 17-year-old Whitney Houston as a cover model on the November 1981 issue of Seventeen magazine, three years before she even became a popstar, which gave Mara hope that "things are possible." She graduated in 1988 from Raytown South High School where she decided she would pursue a career in writing. She opted against going to the University of Missouri like many of her classmates and applied to only one college, Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in the Chicago metropolitan area, hoping to attend the Medill School of Journalism. She was accepted and went on to join the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.[10][11]

In her freshmen year she volunteered to help some friends in the campus' black sketch comedy group Out Da Box. When a member encouraged her to write a sketch, she initially resisted before writing a parody of Mike Tyson and Robin Givens' marriage. "The first laugh was a high I will never forget," she later recounted. She took two courses with professor Njoki McElroy in 'Performance of African-American Literature' that focused on directing and performing. Mara performed in two theatrical productions for her, including playing the lead in The Colored Museum. She had a college internship at the Grand Rapids Press in Michigan that changed her approach to storytelling; "I was thinking I got this story, and you realized very quickly that your stories did not matter. I remember the amount of hustle it took just to get a couple stories on. So, my senior year I decided 'I'm going to tell the truth through fiction.'"[12][13]

She tried out for the job of an MTV VJ when an open audition was held on campus in February 1991.[14] She made her decision to work in the television industry after meeting professor Delle Chatman at an 'Organization of Black Screenwriters' seminar and went on to petition her to get into her screenwriting course.[13][15] She graduated in 1992 and applied for Hollywood writing apprenticeships but never received any. She worked for a year as an assistant manager at a Gap clothing store before deciding to move to Los Angeles.[16][17]

In 1993, she performed as an actor in a minor speaking role in the feature film With Honors (1994) in a scene shot in Chicago. After moving to Los Angeles, she met NU almnus and assistant director Jerry Ziesmer who told her to "put my last two films on your résumé" which helped her get a job as a production assistant for $180 a week on The Sinbad Show. The sitcom aired for one season spanning 24 episodes from September 16, 1993 to April 21, 1994 on Fox before being cancelled.[15][18]

In 1994, while working on the show she knew that its executive producers Ralph Farquhar and Michael J. Weithorn were developing a TV pilot, so she began writing scripts she hoped for them to read. Once she got a minute of Farquhar's time, she told him: "Let me not waste it on why I need you. That's obvious. Let me spend it on why you need me." She was given the position of a WGA Writer's Trainee on the forthcoming series South Central. The comedy drama, which centered on a divorcee single mother Joan Mosley and her three children, aired for one season spanning 10 episodes from April 5 to June 7, 1994 on Fox.[18][19]

After an 18-month unemployment period, she began working on Moesha, starring Brandy Norwood, a sitcom created by Farquhar, Vida Spears and Sara Finney-Johnson. It aired for six seasons spanning 127 episodes from January 23, 1996 to May 14, 2001, becoming the biggest hit on the fledgling UPN. She served as a writer on the first four seasons and as a producer on the fourth season which ended in August 23, 1999. Brock Akil recounts of her experience working for Farquhar: "I really appreciate the way he ran Moesha and that he gave access to us and taught us how to [...] not just write script, but how do you produce that [...] I wanted to learn from him. He learned from Garry Marshall, and so all that legacy is within me."[19] Brock Akil next worked on The Jamie Foxx Show, a sitcom created by its namesake and Bentley Kyle Evans, which aired for five seasons spanning 100 episodes from August 28, 1996 to January 14, 2001 on The WB. She served as a supervising producer and writer on the fourth and fifth seasons where her episodes aired between September 24, 1999 and October 29, 2000.

In 2000, Brock Akil created Girlfriends after she went to UPN and sold her idea for the series.[20] She shopped the series around to studios to start the filming process but, even though the show sold to a major network, no studio wanted to take project. She struck a deal with Kelsey Grammer, and his involvement with Paramount Pictures was able to sign on as an executive producer for the show.[21] Girlfriends premiered on September 11, 2000, and became a part of UPN's Monday night prime time lineup. Chronicling the life of Joan Clayton, played by Tracee Ellis Ross, and her three friends, the show ran for eight seasons, lasting through the production switch from UPN and the launch of The CW network. The show's two-part series finale aired on the CW on February 11, 2008.

She also created and executive produced a spin-off to Girlfriends, The Game, along with her husband Salim Akil.[22] In 2009, Brock Akil became a consulting producer and writer for the ABC suburban sitcom Cougar Town.[23]

Following the launch of the CW network, Brock Akil created a spin-off series to her first show that follows the life of Joan's cousin, Melanie Barnett, played by Tia Mowry. She places her dreams of being a doctor on hold and moves to San Diego to be a supportive backbone to her boyfriend, professional football player Derwin Davis, played by Pooch Hall. The series ran on the CW network for three seasons until its abrupt ending in 2009. The show was canceled for about two years until it was picked up by BET and began production in Atlanta. The Game brought in 7.7 million viewers in its Season 4 premiere on BET.[24] After adding six more seasons to the series, the network released a statement on its website stating that the show would conclude after production of the seventh and eighth seasons.

She is the creator of BET's Being Mary Jane, starring Gabrielle Union premiered July 2, 2013, and became the couple's first hour-long scripted show. The show chronicles the life of Mary Jane Paul, a successful news anchor, and attempts to address the statistic that within the black community 42 percent of successful women will never marry.[11]

In March 2017, Brock Akil left ICM Partners to join Creative Artists Agency (CAA).[25]

The Akils created and executive produced a scripted superhero series, Black Lightning, based on DC Comics' Black Lightning series.[26] The show premiered on January 16, 2018.[27][28]

On January 7, 2020, it was announced that Brock Akil had signed a script deal with Fox Entertainment to develop a series for the Fox broadcast network.[29] On September 9, it was announced that she had signed a multi-year overall deal with Netflix to produce new content.[30]

On September 27, 2021, she announced the launch of her new production company Story27 under her Netflix deal and the titles of three series and one documentary being developed.[31]

Brock Akil is a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs team in the NFL. She loves to journal, especially before bedtime.[32] Along with friends Gina Prince-Bythewood, Sara Finney-Johnson and Felicia D. Henderson, she endows The Four Sisters Scholarship.[33]

She is married to Salim Akil who is also a producer, director and screenwriter. Their first encounter was in 1997 at Insomnia Cafe on Beverly Boulevard—where Mara often spent time writing—when Salim was visiting Los Angeles from the Bay Area while finishing work on his debut film Drylongso that he co-wrote. Their second encounter was in 1998 at a furniture shop on Melrose Avenue, by which point Salim had moved to LA to attend Columbia College Hollywood. They began dating before getting married in April 1999.[34][35][36] She had her first pregnancy in 2004 but may have suffered a miscarriage.[15] The couple have two children together: Yasin Ali Akil (born 2007) and Nasir Lukmon Akil (born 2009). Salim has an older daughter and an older son from before his marriage and is a grandfather.

She and her husband are Sufi Muslims.[37] Mara Brock had been born into a Muslim household that followed the Nation of Islam. After her divorcee mother Joan Fullmore left California with her children and relocated to Missouri, they practiced Christianity—at first following the United Methodist Church, attending Emanuel Cleaver's congregation, and later following the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Mara Brock reverted to Islam at some point before or during her relationship with Salim Akil. In their semi-autobiographical TV series Love Is, the character of Nuri is depicted as being a non-practicing Muslim at the time she began dating Yasir, a practicing Muslim.[38]

Mara Brock Akil is one of six siblings. She has two full-siblings, William Brock III and sister Kara Bustos, and has three half-siblings through her father Wali Shamsuddin: Saiid Shamsuddin, Shamsie Shamsuddin and half-sister Chi'Mere Banks. Her brothers Shamsie and William are deceased, the latter in September 2020.

In 2006, Staci Robinson filed a $40 million lawsuit against Brock Akil and The CW, accusing Brock Akil of stealing the concept of her TV series The Game from Robinson's then-unpublished novel Interceptions from when she allegedly showed it to her in 2001. Robinson argued she had thought of the show first because her novel chronicles the life of Stefanie Porter, a senior studying law at UCLA, who ceases her hopes of becoming a lawyer to support the dreams of her boyfriend, star football player Ricky Powers.[39]

The Akils created Love is, which was based on their relationship, but was canceled after a woman accused Salim of domestic violence in an alleged extramarital affair, as well as copyright infringement by using her screenplay as the basis for the series.[40][41] A statement made by Akil's lawyers denied all allegations.[42][43]