Actress and TV writer Lena Waithe lost $200,000 worth of jewelry to brazen burglars who broke in through a window at her West Hollywood mansion.
The 39-year-old comedian and writer was out of town when a group of thieves smashed a window and slipped inside, according to TMZ.
Law enforcement sources told the outlet the robbers snatched $200,000 worth of jewelry during the brazen break-in.
The crime was discovered by a member of Waithe’s staff, who arrived at the house the next day and found the front door unlocked.
The actress purchased her six-bedroom, eight-bathroom Studio City home for $6.4 million in 2021.
Actress and comedian Lena Waithe lost $200,000 of jewelry to brazen thieves who smashed through a window in her West Hollywood mansion while she was out of town
The 39-year-old is best known as Denise in Netflix series Master of None and as creator of The Chi, a drama based on her own upbringing on Chicago’s South Side
Law enforcement sources told TMZ that the crime was discovered by a member of Waithe’s staff, who found the front door unlocked the following day
The sprawling mansion is just shy of 7,000 square feet and features an outdoor kitchen, backyard sauna and in-ground pool.
Waithe is best known as Denise from Netflix comedy Master of None and creator of The Chi, a drama series influenced by her upbringing in Chicago, Illinois.
She knew as a child that she wanted to write for television and was encouraged to do so by her single mother and grandmother, Waithe told Vogue in 2015.
After moving to Los Angeles, she secured a job as an assistant to the executive producer of Girlfriends, a sitcom centering on a friend group of Black women.
Waithe later became a writer for the Fox television series Bones, a writer for the Nickelodeon sitcom How to Rock, and a producer on the film Dear White People.
She was named as one of Varsity’s ’10 Comedians to Watch’ in 2018.
In August 2015, Showtime commissioned a pilot for The Chi, written by Waithe and produced by rapper Common.
Waithe wanted the series to mirror her upbringing on Chicago’s South Side. It centers on a young Black man’s coming-of-age story in the titular city.
Waithe knew from a young age that she wanted to write for television and wrote and produced for several shows before Showtime commissioned a pilot for The Chi in August 2015
She was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2018 and was included on Fast Company’s Queer 50 list in both 2021 and 2022
The same year, the comedian was cast in Master of None after meeting creator and lead actor Aziz Ansari.
Ansari and co-creator Alan Yang rewrote the script to make Waithe’s character, Denise, more like herself.
‘All of us actors play heightened versions of ourselves,’ the actress later told Vogue.
In 2017, Waithe and Ansari won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, making Waithe the first African-American woman to win an Emmy in that category.
The episode, Waithe explained in her acceptance speech, was based on her coming-out experience as a lesbian.
She thanked the audience for ’embracing a little Indian boy from South Carolina and a little queer Black girl from the South Side of Chicago.’
The 39-year-old was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2018 and was included on Fast Company’s Queer 50 list in both 2021 and 2022.