Azie Dungey

Azie Mira Dungey is from the Washington, DC / Maryland / Virginia area, dubbed "the DMV" by locals. She spent some of her early years ins Philadelphia with her grandparents, as her mother was attending law school, she and has her grandfather's last name.{{cite interview | interviewer-last=Krawec | interviewer-first=Patty |first=Azie |last=Dungey | title=Black and Indigenous with Azie Dungey | website=Medicine for the Resistance | date=31 May 2020 | url=https://medicinefortheresistance.substack.com/p/black-and-indigenous-with-azie-dungey-24b#details | access-date=30 January 2024}} She also lived in Maryland in her younger years.{{cite news | last=Andrews-Dyer | first=Helena | title=Actress who once played a slave at Mount Vernon makes it to Hollywood | newspaper=Washington Post | date=12 March 2015 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2015/03/12/actress-who-once-played-a-slave-at-mount-vernon-makes-it-to-hollywood/ | access-date=30 January 2024}}

She is descended from a John Dungey, a Pamunkey man who lived in Virginia and ran his own shipping business. He married an enslaved African American woman (with a white father, her master), and had to get a petition signed by white residents of the state to allow them both to stay there. The relationships between Native Americans were complicated. Dungey is thus both African American and Pamunkey,{{cite web | last=Kordic | first=Mya | title=Screenwriter Azie Dungey hit the wall during the Hollywood writers' strike and found solace in outback WA | website=ABC News | date=28 January 2024 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-28/screenwriter-azie-dungey-hollywood-writers-strike-to-kimberley/103385378 | access-date=29 January 2024}} also Mattaponi, and a very active member of the Native community. The tribe's enrollment policies that excluded members{{Cite web |last=Sunray |first=Cedric |title=Pamunkey Pride and Prejudice: How the Feds Mandated Racism |url= https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/pamunkey-pride-and-prejudice-how-the-feds-mandated-racism|access-date=2021-06-15 |website=Indian Country Today|language=en}} who married or had children with African Americans was exposed by the Congressional Black Caucus{{Cite web|last=Washington|first=Associated Press in |date=2014-11-28|title=Congressional Black Caucus protests against Virginia Indian tribe recognition |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/28/virginia-native-americans-race|access-date=2021-06-15 |website=the Guardian|language=en}} during their recognition process in 2013. Dungey comes from a family that was victim to Pamunkey anti-Black tribal law and {{as of|lc=yes|August 2020}} they were seeking enrollment.{{Cite web |last=Dungey |first=Azie|date=August 18, 2020|title=twitter thread: I've talked a bit about my family... |url=https://twitter.com/AzieDee/status/1295883655827476480|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819004233/https://twitter.com/AzieDee/status/1295883655827476480 |archive-date=2020-08-19 |access-date=|website=}}

She graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.{{cite web | last=Liss-Schultz | first=Nina | title=New comedic web series calls out modern day racial ignorance | website=Mother Jones | date=10 September 2013 | url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/09/ask-slave-comedy-azie-mira-dungey/ | access-date=29 January 2024}}

She admired Tina Fey from a young age and was an avid watcher of Saturday Night Live.

Dungey took part in a number of theatre productions in Washington, DC,{{cite web | last=Wells | first=Veronica | title="Ask A Slave": Actress Creates Series Based On Ignorant Questions She Fielded | website=MadameNoire | date=3 September 2013 | url=https://madamenoire.com/298000/ask-a-slave-actress-creates-series-based-on-questions-she-fielded/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210727085011/https://madamenoire.com/298000/ask-a-slave-actress-creates-series-based-on-questions-she-fielded/ | archive-date=27 July 2021 | url-status=dead | access-date=29 January 2024}} including The Walworth Farce at Studio Theatre.[http://brightestyoungthings.com/articles/play-dc-the-walworth-farce-studio-theater.htm " Play DC: The Walworth Farce @ Studio Theatre"]. Brightest Young Things, April 13, 2011

Dungey performed the role of George Washington's family's enslaved lady's maid, as part of an ongoing historical reenactment of life at the Mount Vernon plantation in Virginia once owned by president Washington.[http://dcist.com/2013/09/ask_an_actor_ask_a_slaves_azie_mira.php "Ask A 'Living History' Actor: Ask A Slave's Azie Mira Dungey On Her New Web Series"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130911210333/http://dcist.com/2013/09/ask_an_actor_ask_a_slaves_azie_mira.php |date=2013-09-11 }}. DCist, by Matt Cohen on Sep 9, 201 Part of her job was to answer tourists' questions about slavery while staying in character.[http://goodblacknews.org/2013/09/05/ask-a-slave-web-series-creator-azie-mira-dungey-uses-satire-to-educate-the-ignorant-about-slavery/ "‘Ask A Slave’ Web Series Creator Azie Mira Dungey Uses Satire To Educate the Ignorant About Slavery"]. Good Black News. She worked there part-time for nearly two years from 2010 to 2012.{{Cite news|url=http://dcist.com/2013/09/ask_an_actor_ask_a_slaves_azie_mira.php |title=Ask A 'Living History' Actor: Ask A Slave's Azie Mira Dungey On Her New Web Series|work=DCist|access-date=2017-04-13 |language=en-US|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130911210333/http://dcist.com/2013/09/ask_an_actor_ask_a_slaves_azie_mira.php|archive-date=2013-09-11}}

In 2013, Dungey moved to Los Angeles. She then wrote the script for a comedic web series called Ask a Slave,[http://www.phillymag.com/news/2013/09/06/watch-ask-a-slave/#more-458601 "WATCH: Have You Seen "Ask a Slave"?"]. Philadelphia. and performed the lead role, that of Lizzie Mae, a slave.[http://www.astate.edu/news/a-state-professor-receives-start-up-grant "A-State Professor Receives Start-Up Grant 04/10/2014"]. A State, Arkansas State University.[http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/11/25/youtube-comedy-ask-slave-tackles-thanksgiving-question-what-about-indians-152432 "YouTube Comedy 'Ask a Slave' Tackles the Thanksgiving Question: 'What About the Indians?'"]. Indian Country Today, November 25, 2013.{{cite web | last=Starr | first=Terrell Jermaine | title='Ask A Slave' Creator Uses Sarcastic Humor To Reveal Utter Ignorance | website=NewsOne | date=5 September 2013 | url=https://newsone.com/2710308/ask-a-slave-web-series-azie-mira-dungey/ | access-date=29 January 2024}}[http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/09/06/ask-a-slave "Ask A Slave And Get A Real Answer"]. Here & Now.Neetzan Zimmerman. [http://gawker.com/ask-a-slave-is-the-best-web-series-since-drunk-histo-1251707722 "'Ask A Slave' Is the Best Web Series Since 'Drunk History'"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130907210836/http://gawker.com/ask-a-slave-is-the-best-web-series-since-drunk-histo-1251707722 |date=September 7, 2013 }}. Gawker. The series, which she also produced, includes actual incidents from her experiences on the plantation.{{cite web | last=Thenor-Louis] | first=Isabelle | title=Satirical "Ask a Slave" tackles modern knowledge of slavery | website=The Brown Daily Herald | date=14 March 2014 | url=https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2014/03/satirical-ask-a-slave-tackles-modern-knowledge-of-slavery | access-date=29 January 2024}} Released on YouTube, the series attracted hundreds of thousands of page views soon after its release. After the success of the series, Salon magazine listed her as one of 10 black women Saturday Night Live could hire.{{Cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/2013/11/06/10_black_women_snl_should_consider_hiring/|title=10 talented black women "SNL" could hire |last=Gupta |first=Prachi |website=Salon|date=November 6, 2013 |access-date=2017-04-13}}

She was invited by Tina Fey to write for the Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and later wrote for Girls5eva, both produced by Fey and Robert Carlock. She also co-wrote and co-produced the TV drama series Sweetbitter{{imdb title|7563270}} on Starz, based on the bestselling novel of the same title by Stephanie Danler.{{cn|date=January 2024}}

From 2019, Dungey wrote and hosted on Season 1 of Say It Loud, an educational series for PBS Digital.{{imdb title|11350358| Say It Loud (TV Series 2019–) }} Also in 2019, she was executive producer and writer for Lena Waithe's Twenties, {{imdb title|8115582| Twenties}} a sitcom on BET and Showtime, as well as Tracy Oliver's comedy series Harlem (2021), for which her writing was praised.{{cite web | last=Wardlow | first=Ciara | title=Amazon's Harlem Delivers a Fun, Flirty Romp of New York City Glamour, Finally in Color | website=rogerebert.com | date=3 December 2021 | url=https://www.rogerebert.com/streaming/harlem-amazon-tv-review-2021 | access-date=30 January 2024}}

Towards the end of the prolonged 2023 writers' strike in the U.S., during which Azie stood on the picket line for nearly four months, she went to Australia. There she connected and worked with some of the Indigenous Australian peoples in the Kimberley region in the north of Western Australia, and did a workshop at Goolarri Media in Broome. She was excited to meet Mark Coles Smith, star of the third series of Mystery Road, and was inspired to tell some of the stories of the Aboriginal peoples of the region, such as the story of Bunuba warrior Jandamarra.

Dungey has lived on Standing Rock Reservation on Sioux Country, in North and South Dakota.

{{reflist}}

• Tyson, A. M., & Dungey, A. M. (2014). [https://doi.org/10.1525/tph.2014.36.1.36 Ask a Slave and Interpreting Race on Public History’s Front Line: Interview with Azie Mira Dungey]. The Public Historian, 36(1), 36–60.

• {{IMDb name|5168001}}
• {{official|http://www.askaslave.com/| Ask a Slave website}}
• {{YouTube|AskASlaveTheWebSeries|Ask a Slave}}

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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people

Category:American television writers

Category:Tisch School of the Arts alumni

Category:African-American actresses