Self-produced web series are increasingly replacing more traditional paths in Hollywood, and the latest beneficiary of that is Issa Rae, whose HBO series “Insecure” debuted this month. Despite the self-deprecating title, as a comedy it is bracingly confident and happily profane in its portrayal of female friendships, career irritations, maddening romantic partners and upwardly mobile black life in Los Angeles.

Rae recently spoke to Columbia College film students in Chicago hoping to follow in her footsteps. “I found a shortcut my senior year in college by creating a web series just for fun, just to procrastinate,” she told me earlier in the day. “That was my biggest lightbulb moment.”

Her first project was “Dorm Diaries,” filmed while she was at Stanford University, which she followed with a mockumentary series about her brother's rap group trying to make it in LA. She had hopes of adapting both YouTube projects for TV. Neither got out of the gate.

But next came the series that would gain her the attention of television producers: “The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl,” this time with Rae stepping out from behind the camera to star. The show's online success led to a deal at HBO, and while the new show is not “Awkward Black Girl 2.0,” it does share certain Rae-vian hallmarks, including her indelible take on uncomfortable social dynamics.

“Insecure” is sleek in both pace and look,, but it also captures the rhythms and preoccupations of its specific world. Of code switching and what it means to be a black woman in a predominantly white office. Of the way texting can shape (or fizzle) relationships in weirdly specific and nuanced ways. Of pop culture-inflected banter, including the observation from an old friend that “every black girl I went to college with likes Drake,” prompting momentary annoyance from Rae's character, only for her to admit, “He just gets us!”

To the audience at Columbia, she laid out her approach: “As an avid viewer of reality TV — and I watch all that trash — the idea of black people and friendships, you would think it doesn't exist. With ‘Insecure,' I wanted to show that on screen.”

Tellingly, Rae confirmed what most in attendance probably already suspected: Don't wait for someone to give you a shot. Just make something. If it's good, someone will notice. “I've had some candid conversations with agents,” Rae told them, “and at this point, they won't rep writers if they can't watch something online. It's mandatory now to get some friends together and shoot something, whether it's a YouTube series or a trailer or just something.”

After a Q&A, a long line formed. Budding filmmakers with yet more questions and the requisite selfie request. Rae spoke to every one. Many asked about how to retain the authenticity of their ideas in the face of a TV and film industry that is forever asking writers to dull the edges of their work. You could sense their eagerness, impatience even, to see their plans become reality. It took Rae 10 years to get to this point, and after the crowd thinned, I asked if she could sense their restlessness.

“I get it,” she said. “That's what it felt like for me too. You look up, and it's like, 10 years have gone by? I remember being a freshman or sophomore when ‘Crash' came out, and (director) Paul Haggis said it took nine years to get that made, and I thought, ‘That's never going to be me!' But it's better not to know it might take that long, because I would have been like, ‘Oh, no. Nope. I can't wait that long.' Stupidly. I would have thought, 31 years old? That was so old to me when I was 19. I wanted to win awards and break records when I was 23, and that's just unrealistic.”

Over lunch at her hotel, she talked in depth about the world of “Insecure” and playing a character who shares her own first name. This is an edited transcript.

What it feels like to be on the cusp of becoming very recognizable: That's one of my biggest regrets, that I did name her Issa, because now people will definitely think this is based on my life. But it does help people to pronounce my name.

At the airport yesterday, a girl pronounced my name wrong. She called me “Ih-suh” instead of “Ee-suh.” That's the one I hate the most. “Eye-suh” I can deal with, but “Ih-suh” sounds incomplete, like it should be Mel-issa. Like you think my name is incomplete.

She recognized me from “Awkward Black Girl.” (Laughs) And then she said, “I almost didn't recognize you because you look so much younger in person!”

Struggling to make it after college: I was living with my mom, which sucked. It was like I failed, because I went back home. But I created my second web series while at home.

I used to also talk a lot of (smack) about the fact that there wasn't a lot diversity or characters that I could relate to; I was just tired of the state of black film and television. And one commenter on my blog was like, “Well, why don't you do something? You talk all this (smack).” So that's when I created “Awkward Black Girl.” I have to put my money where my mouth is.

Ensuring characters on the show can afford the lives they're living, unlike the unrealistic portrayal of a freelance writer's finances on a show like “Sex and the City”: That was one of the biggest things. (Director and executive producer) Melina Matsoukas and I are generally on the same page, but her taste is so elegant and high, and my thing was always, “I'm basic and simple, and I feel like you're elevating it, which is great visually, but this couch in my apartment has to be realistic!”

The exuberantly delivered NSFW language in “Insecure”: That is how my friends and I talk. The actress who plays my best friend (Yvonne Orji) said that when she first read the script, she was like, “Are they actually friends? Do they hate each other?” Because to just read it on the page, it sounds really aggressive. We roast each other, but that's how we show our friendship.

nmetz@chicagotribune.com