| Yvette Lee Bowser | |
| Birth Name: | Yvette Denise Lee |
| Birth Date: | 9 June 1965 |
| Birth Place: | United States |
| Education: | Stanford University (BA) |
| Occupation: | Television producer, screenwriter |
| Years Active: | 1987–present |
| Known For: | A Different World Living Single Half & Half Black-ish Dear White People Run the World |
Yvette Denise Lee Bowser (born 1965)[1] is an American television writer and producer best known for creating the Fox sitcom Living Single. Early in her career, worked on The Cosby Show spin-off A Different World. With Living Single, she became the first African-American woman to develop her own primetime series.[2]
Bowser started on A Different World in 1987 as one of a number of apprentices, rising in prominence in the production company over the years and eventually becoming producer by the 1991–92 season.[3] She left the show to take a position with Hangin' with Mr. Cooper.
Bowser created her own company, Sister Lee Productions, which produced or co-produced her later shows, Living Single and Half & Half. She has said in an interview that she draws many of her characters and plots from her own and her friends' personal experiences.[4] She has said, "I just basically rip pages out of my diary to tell stories on TV."[5] 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.[5]
Through Sister Lee Productions, Bowser served as showrunner[6] for the critically acclaimed Netflix series Dear White People, adapted with Justin Simien from his film of the same name.[7] [8] [9] [10] In 2020, she became the showrunner on the Starz original series Run the World, created by Leigh Davenport.[11] [12]
Bowser lived in Philadelphia's Carroll Park neighborhood until age 5, when she and her mother moved to California.[13] Bowser graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1983.[14] She attended with Holly Robinson, who was a part of the Hangin' with Mr. Cooper cast and later starred in For Your Love.[15] Bowser also attended with her friend Lori Petty, whom she later cast in her sitcom Lush Life.[14]
After high school, Bowser attended Stanford University where, in spring 1986, she pledged the Xi Beta chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.[16]
Yvette Lee married producer Kyle Bowser in 1994. The two worked together on Living Single, Half & Half, and For Your Love.[17]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–1992 | A Different World | Producer, Program Consultant | 25 episodes | |
| 1993 | Hangin' with Mr. Cooper | Producer | 17 episodes | |
| 1993 | The Wayans Bros. | Executive Consultant | 17 episodes | |
| 1993–1998 | Living Single | Creator, Executive Producer | 105 episodes | |
| 1996 | Lush Life | Creator, Executive Producer | 7 episodes | |
| 1998–2002 | For Your Love | Creator, Executive Producer | 84 episodes | |
| 2002–2006 | Half & Half | Executive Producer | 91 episodes | |
| 2008–2009 | Lipstick Jungle | Consulting Producer | 11 episodes | |
| 2012 | The Exes | Consulting Producer | 12 episodes | |
| 2012–2013 | Happily Divorced | Consulting Producer | 12 episodes | |
| 2014–2016 | Black-ish | Consulting Producer | 3 episodes | |
| 2017–2019 | Dear White People | Executive Producer | 30 episodes | |
| 2021 | Run the World | Executive Producer | 8 episodes |