--- title: Lena Waithe Wants to Make Mary Tyler Moore Biopic description: Lena Waithe has revealed that her dream project would be making a biopic of the life story of TV icon Mary Tyler Moore. canonical: https://time.com/5225210/lena-waithe-mary-tyler-moore-biopic/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-04-02T20:27:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:51:47.981Z og:title: Lena Waithe Really Wants to Make a Mary Tyler Moore Biopic og:description: "I want to tell her story" og:url: https://time.com/5225210/lena-waithe-mary-tyler-moore-biopic/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt286d83cd16599d16/69892c9c656a3f608bbd40a4/lena-waithe-mary-tyler-moore-biopic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Los Angeles Premiere of "Ready Player One" og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Lena Waithe Really Wants to Make a Mary Tyler Moore Biopic twitter:description: "I want to tell her story" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt286d83cd16599d16/69892c9c656a3f608bbd40a4/lena-waithe-mary-tyler-moore-biopic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Lena Waithe Really Wants to Make a Biopic of Mary Tyler Moore > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Apr 2, 2018 8:27 PM UTC  HOLLYWOOD, CA - MARCH 26: Actress Lena Waithe arrives at the Premiere of Warner Bros. Pictures' 'Ready Player One' at Dolby Theatre on March 26, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic) HOLLYWOOD, CA - MARCH 26: Actress Lena Waithe arrives at the Premiere of Warner Bros. Pictures' 'Ready Player One' at Dolby Theatre on March 26, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic) Axelle/Bauer-Griffin—FilmMagic  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Apr 2, 2018 8:27 PM UTC [Emmy-winning](http://time.com/4945661/lena-waithe-emmys-speech-master-of-none/) writer, actor, and producer [Lena Waithe](http://time.com/collection-post/5015810/american-voices-lena-waithe/) has made a name for herself with projects like _The Chi_ and [_Master of None_](http://time.com/4785022/master-of-none-thanksgiving-lena-waithe/), as well as roles on the silver screen like [_Ready Player One_](http://time.com/5224020/ready-player-one-box-office/). The next project that she’s hoping to tackle? A biopic of groundbreaking television icon [Mary Tyler Moore](http://time.com/4649136/mary-tyler-moore-dead-80/). In an interview with _The Hollywood Reporter,_ Waithe revealed that Moore is a personal hero of hers, not only because she grew up watching _The Mary Tyler Moore_ _Show_, but also because of the boundaries that Moore broke for women in the television industry. “I read her autobiography more times than I can count,” Waithe said. “Because I was obsessed with _The Mary Tyler Moore Show_. I was, like, who is this woman? Who is this person that everybody is wanting to be, that everybody was so happy when she came onscreen? Who was this woman who went from being Dick Van Dyke’s wife \[on _The_ _Dick Van Dyke Show_\] to the first woman to wear pants on primetime television? The first real single girl that wasn’t focused on finding a man on primetime TV.” She continued to discuss her impact. “She was a feminist in every sense of the word, but she was also a functioning alcoholic. She was also extremely private. She had MTM \[Enterprises\]. MTM produced _St. Elsewhere_, _Lou Grant_and all these other amazing shows. I feel like, I want to tell her story. That is what I want to do, I’m only concerned with doing what I want to do. I don’t want to follow a certain path. I just want to just make dope sh-t.” Waithe also revealed that while she’s not quite sure how she’ll create the project, it’s something that she wants to pursue, as well as a doing a James Baldwin feature. “I don’t really know how to do it. I really want to do that and find a dope actress to come in and play her and figure it out,” she said. “That’s the thing that’s on my radar that I want to figure out. But I’m still a queer black girl and want to tell a James Baldwin \[story\], too. But that’s who I am, that’s what kind of artist I am.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5225210/lena-waithe-mary-tyler-moore-biopic/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5225210/lena-waithe-mary-tyler-moore-biopic/"},"headline":"Lena Waithe Really Wants to Make a Biopic of Mary Tyler Moore","datePublished":"2018-04-02T20:27:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:51:47.981Z","description":"\"I want to tell her story\"","url":"https://time.com/5225210/lena-waithe-mary-tyler-moore-biopic/","keywords":["Newsfeed","entertainment"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt286d83cd16599d16/69892c9c656a3f608bbd40a4/lena-waithe-mary-tyler-moore-biopic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt286d83cd16599d16/69892c9c656a3f608bbd40a4/lena-waithe-mary-tyler-moore-biopic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Los Angeles Premiere of \"Ready Player One\"","caption":"Los Angeles Premiere of \"Ready Player One\"","creditText":"Axelle/Bauer-Griffin—FilmMagic","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5225210/lena-waithe-mary-tyler-moore-biopic/","name":"Lena Waithe Really Wants to Make a Biopic of Mary Tyler Moore"}}]}] ```