Comedy Central Renews Sophomore Series for Season 3
Awkwafina is staying in Queens for another season. Comedy Central renewed Awkwafina is Nora From Queens for Season 3 on Thursday. The series launched in January 2020 and has continued to perform well for the Paramount-owned cable network.
Awkwafina created the series with Teresa Hsiao. It is loosely inspired by Awkwafina's real life in Queens. She plays a 20-something named Noa Lin who wants something more in life. She is raised by her grandmother, played by Lori Tan Chinn, and her father Wally, played by BD Wong. The recurring cast includes Chrissie Fit as Nora's friend Melanie, Jonathan Park as Doug, Bowen Yang as Nora's cousin Edmund, and Jennifer Esposito as Wally's girlfriend Brenda. Deadline first reported the show's Season 3 renewal.
Nora from Queens debuted in January 2020 and returned for a second season in August 2021. The show earned critical acclaim, with the first season earning an 80% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It is an MTV Entertainment Studios production and is available to stream on HBO Max. Awkwafina, Karey Dornetto, Lucia Aniello, Hsiao, Itay Reiss, and Peter Principato are the executive producers.
Awkwafina began her career as a rapper before making her acting debut in the MTV series Girl Code in 2014. She went on to make her big-screen debut in 2016's Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. After starring in Crazy Rich Asians and Ocean's 8 in 2018, she had a breakthrough year in 2019, when she earned critical acclaim for The Farewell. In 2021, she voiced Sisu in Disney's Raya and the Last Dragon and played Katy in Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. She is working with Disney again as the voice of Scuttle in The Little Mermaid and has a role in the Nicolas Cage-starring horror-comedy Renfield.
In February, Awkwafina responded to longstanding criticism that she used a blaccsent during her career and appropriated Black culture. She shared a long, now-deleted Twitter thread, saying she did not mean to mock Black people. "As a non-black POC, I stand by the fact that I will always listen and work tirelessly to understand the history and context of AAVE [African American Vernacular English], what is deemed appropriate or backwards towards the progress of ANY and EVERY marginalized group," she wrote in part, reports The Hollywood Reporter. "But I must emphasize: to mock, belittle, or to be unkind in any way possible at the expense of others is: Simply. Not. My. Nature. It never has, and it never was." Later in her thread, Awkwafina said she was "retiring" from Twitter. Not only did she delete the thread, but she completely deleted her Twitter profile.