Lena Waithe to Create Mary Tyler Moore Documentary

Emmy Award-winning actress and writer Lena Waite is stepping behind the scenes and setting her sights on one of the most iconic women in television history.

Waithe’s Hillman Grad Productions and Endeavor Content are producing Being Mary: The Mary Tyler Moore Documentary, a forthcoming film that will chronicle the personal and professional journey of the star, business woman, and advocate best known for playing a single, successful woman of television in The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The show has been hailed as one of the greatest TV series of all time.

Expected the release in 2022, the film will be directed by James Adolphus (Soul of a Nation). Moore’s husband, Dr. S. Robert Levine, will serve as executive producer.

Being Mary is the first authorized biography of Moore, who died at the age of 80 in 2017. She starred opposite Dick Van Dyke as suburban stay-at-home mom Laura Petrie from 1961-1966 on The Dick Van Dyke Show, and then broke the mold for seven seasons on her Mary Tyler Moore Show, which revolutionized how single, working women were portrayed in pop culture. With her then-husband Grant Tinker, Moore started MTM Enterprises, the production company behind The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its several spinoffs like The Bob Newhart Show and St. Elsewhere.

Moore also appeared on Broadway and in several movies. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of a cold, unforgiving mother in 1980’s Ordinary People.

According to the project’s announcement, Being Mary will tell Moore’s story through “unprecedented access to her life and estates, loved ones, colleagues, and friends.”

The Hollywood Reporter stated that Waithe called Moore “an icon, mystery, and an inspiration,” adding, “With the help of her loving husband, Robert, and her friends and colleagues, we hope to reveal that America’s sweetheart was more human than they ever imagined and was often put on a pedestal she never felt comfortable standing on.”

Dr. Levine added, “In her high school yearbook, Mary wrote: ‘The world is always ready to receive talent with open arms’… and Mary always sought to surround herself with the best. To have extraordinary and purposeful talents like Lena and James tell Mary’s story honors her in a way I know she would have treasured.”

For her work on Netflix’s Master of None, Waithe, an outspoken champion of LGBTQ visibility and acceptance, made history in 2017 as the first Black woman to win an Emmy for writing for a comedy series. Her other TV projects include Boomerang, The Chi, and Twenties. She also made her feature film screenwriting debut with 2019’s Queen & Slim.

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