Angela Nissel on grief, humor, and the complicated legacy of Okayplayer

Author and TV writer Angela Nissel has built a career on wit that refuses to flinch. Her new memoir, Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom Is Dead, turns the painful experience of caring for a dying parent into a darkly funny story. Nissel, who first gained attention with The Broke Diaries, later wrote for Scrubs and The Boondocks, and co-founded the influential hip-hop site Okayplayer with Questlove.

In a Q&A with The Verge, Nissel opened up about the everyday tools she treasures, her complicated feelings about Okayplayer, and how she gets through creative blocks.

Nissel still carries a knockoff Swiss Army knife given to her by the Scrubs crew more than 20 years ago. Her dog, she says, is an underappreciated helper who shreds cardboard boxes in seconds. The first app she installs is Craigslist — she once found a free patio set and tried to make a clubbing friend, though the friendship ended when she forgot her wallet.

She complains that her phone still butt-dials people even though it recognizes her face. She keeps Wordle, Connections, and saved essays in her browser, and limits herself to four open tabs to avoid anxiety. Instagram is her most-used platform, because her publisher wants her to make “charismatic vertical videos” in 2026.

Her favorite gadget ever was her first Fitbit, which felt like science fiction to someone raised on Commodore 64. A wearable meant to shock her out of bad habits was the most disappointing. Her fondest gaming memories involve Castle Wolfenstein on the Commodore 64.

Nissel wishes she had made the movie The Blackening. But the creation she is both proudest and least proud of is Okayplayer. For 25 years, she says, she has fielded questions about why the only woman involved wasn’t credited, why the man she hired replaced her, and why she doesn’t know who owns the site. She sees it as part of a broader pattern of women of color being erased from internet history.

Her best advice: be interesting and interested, get offline, and try local classes or birdwatching. To focus, she takes an edible; when stuck, she gives herself permission to enjoy someone else’s work. She goes to the dog park without her phone every day. The last physical media she bought were books, including If I Ruled the World by Amy Dubois Barnett. Books, she says, are worth splurging on for days of relaxation. Her biopic tagline, she jokes: “She had jokes, trauma, and a very suspicious relationship with pigeons.”