‘Harlem’ Exclusive: Tracy Oliver Reveals Which Storylines Were Inspired By Real Life And Teases Season 3

Have you been keeping up with Season 2 of Harlem?

Bossip’s Sr. Content Director Janeé Bolden chatted with ‘Harlem’ creator, writer and executive producer Tracy Oliver ahead of season 2 about how she borrows from her own life and those of people she knows for plot points.

“I would say initially it’s stuff that’s either happened to me or if somebody in the writer’s room has a story to share that’s either really funny or really interesting I’ll say ‘Ooh let’s put that in there,’” Tracy Oliver told BOSSIP.

“The Tye story from last season with the fibroids, that came from someone in the writer’s room and that just got us talking about how often we’re told to be strong and how often we cannot emote and be honest about our vulnerabilities. So I was like, ‘let’s do an episode about it.’”

Oliver added that while she believes using real life as a source of inspiration, it can sometimes lead to the audience reading into the storylines when the actors have similar experiences going on in their real lives.

“It’s always coming from a real place because I think those make the best stories and then sometimes, which I think is interesting, where art imitates life, sometimes I’ll come up with something and then weirdly the actor playing it is like, ‘Oh my God, people are going to think that’s from my real life.’ Sometimes it will be totally separate and then you accidentally dovetail into something that’s happening with them currently and then when that happens I know people are going to be like, ‘Oh I know you did that because of X,Y and Z,’ but it’s often not because of that.”

Oliver also spoke about how the pandemic has made for an unusual production schedule for the show and shared her hopes for a third season.

“We just started the writer’s room for Season 3,” Tracy revealed when asked whether she’s begun plotting plans for the Harlem cast following the Season 2 cliffhanger ending. “Fingers crossed that if people watch Season 2 and if it does well we’ll get a pickup for a third season. Then we’ll be shooting that this year and releasing around the same time, February of next year. That’s the hope but this show in particular has been bizarre because of the pandemic. I started it in 2019 and then we started shooting in 2020 then shut down because of the pandemic, then finished shooting a year later. It’s been a very long process for two seasons. We should have like eight out by now if you actually counted all the years and time that we’ve had but I’m just grateful that we’re still doing it.

Season 2 of Harlem is streaming now on Prime Video.