Yvette Denise Lee Bowser (born June 9, 1965) is an American television writer and producer best known for creating the Fox sitcom Living Single. With Living Single, she became the first African-American woman to develop her own primetime series.
Bowser started on A Different World in 1987 as an unpaid apprentice writer, rising through the production company and eventually becoming a staff writer and producer. She wrote 25 episodes over five years. She later worked on the television show Hangin' with Mr. Cooper.
In 1992, Bowser created Living Single, a hit ensemble comedy that premiered in August 1993 and became a cultural touchstone for its portrayal of young Black professionals navigating friendship, work, and love in New York City. The series was ranked No. 1 among Black and Latino households by Nielsen during its five-year run and was named one of VarietyâÂÂs âÂÂ100 Greatest TV Shows of All Timeâ in 2023. The publication noted that âÂÂâÂÂLiving Singleâ was âÂÂFriendsâ before âÂÂFriendsâ existed,â and it âÂÂreset the paradigmâ of Black women on screen.
Bowser created her own company, Sister Lee Productions, which produced or co-produced Living Single in 1992. Between 1993 and 1997, she launched four television seriesâÂÂLiving Single (1993), The Wayans Bros. (1995), Lush Life (1996), and For Your Love (picked up in 1997 and premiered in 1998)âÂÂbecoming the first Black writer-creator to have three shows on the air simultaneously. She later launched the show Half & Half. She contributed to the development of the award-winning series Black-ish during its early seasons.
She has said in an interview that she draws many of her characters and plots from her own and her friends' personal experiences. She has said, "I just basically rip pages out of my diary to tell stories on TV." In the case of Half & Half, for example, the writer based the characters Mona and Dee-Dee on herself and an older half-sister, and plot ideas came from her experience as the youngest child in a blended family.
Through Sister Lee Productions, Bowser served as showrunner for the critically acclaimed Netflix series Dear White People, adapted with Justin Simien from his film of the same name. In 2020, she became the showrunner on the Starz original series Run the World, created by Leigh Davenport.
Bowser is also reportedly developing a slate of projects in an overall deal with 20th Century Studios.
Yvette Denise Lee was born in Philadelphia in 1965. She lived in the city's Carroll Park neighborhood until age 5, when she and her mother moved to California. Bowser graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1983. She attended with Holly Robinson, who was a part of the Hangin' with Mr. Cooper cast and later starred in For Your Love. She also attended with her friend Lori Petty, whom she later cast in her sitcom Lush Life.
After high school, Lee attended Stanford University where, in spring 1986, she pledged the Xi Beta chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Yvette Lee married producer Kyle Bowser in 1994. The two worked together on Living Single, Half & Half, and For Your Love.