Angie Nwandu launched The Shade Room in 2014 as a side hustle. Today, that side hustle—which grew from an Instagram-only celebrity tabloid into a media company with a 40-person staff—reaches 29 million social media obsessives by tapping into their wolfish appetite for drama.
The Shade Room pioneered a unique, if somewhat innovative, brand of digital media, merging elements of fan culture around the machine of celebrity news (Shade Room regulars are called Roomies). More than your run-of-the-mill gossip rag or news aggregator, TSR evolved into an information hub for “the culture,” Nwandu says, “but also a reflection of it and voice for it. We’re known as a megaphone.”
The primary focus of the platform is the fragile world of Black celebrity. Want to know who NFL quarterback Jalen Hurts got engaged to or why Naomi Campbell has beef with Rihanna? Maybe you are wondering why a Louisville woman claims Kanye West “telegraphically” told her to allegedly steal a vehicle with a child inside? TSR has you covered.
I recently phoned Nwandu to chat about the controversial influence of The Shade Room and the legacy she wants to leave behind. The platform has slowly branched into different coverage areas—politics, investigative reporting, spirituality—and she says that’s all part of a larger plan to eventually move beyond celebrity gossip, which she describes as “tiring.”
Nwandu hasn’t gotten there yet. The week we spoke, music mogul Diddy was arrested after a grand jury indicted him on charges including sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy (he pleaded not guilty), so we also talked about that—and Nwandu was an open book.
JASON PARHAM: The Shade Room was a pioneer of social-media-centric celebrity news on Instagram. Today there are hundreds of accounts that do what you do. How does that feel?
ANGIE NWANDU: Nobody ever gives this nod to The Shade Room but we served up a blueprint that was able to be replicated. I’m friends with Shawn McKenzie [founder of The Spiritual Word] and Jason Lee [founder of Hollywood Unlocked], and we’ve had conversations. I had talks with both of them where I shared tips and advice. I’m happy to see that our blueprint was able to inspire other Black media companies who are thriving in their own right. To see the success of all these platforms is amazing to me. I’m actually really proud of that because who doesn’t want to start something that creates a ripple effect?
The Shade Room has never shied away from controversy but I imagine there are editorial guidelines that you follow. What won’t you post?
If I say which stories, it would defeat the purpose now. I will say, what we don’t do is out people. A lot of people send us very salacious stories where they are outing people. That’s something that we stay away from. In the beginning we were kinda wild, but generally that is something we have avoided. I’ve seen the damage in what it does to people who are not ready to step out in that way. We have tried to move away from invasion of privacy in certain areas.
But is it not called The Shade Room for a reason?
We’re trying to change what we post and move towards positivity. We used to post clapbacks all day long and we have eased off of that. It’s been hard because our name is The Shade Room—like, if Diddy goes to jail, we have to get that up. But there’s a lot we won’t post. It’s been a dance, for sure.
Why the change in tone?
It’s a sense of responsibility. I first started the platform when I was 23. I was reckless and wild. I didn’t understand the weight of what I was carrying at the time. For me, it was, “Oh, it’s just celebrity news, who cares?” I was very reckless in the way that we started. Anybody who followed The Shade Room the first year—2014, 2015—they know that we are not the same platform at all.
Over time it was the criticism we received from a lot of people. It was the reach of The Shade Room, how far and wide I saw a story go. The impact it was having. I said I’ve got to start taking it seriously. I want to leave a better legacy behind. Now it’s—what positivity can we bring? I remember when we introduced #MorningInspiration and talked about God. Everybody wanted to burn us in a fire. Like, how dare a celebrity platform talk about God.
You must have known that change would catch people off guard.
I’m the type of person who is going to push out what I like and hope you like it too. I’m a spiritual person, and I wanted to add that. To be honest, celebrity news was getting tiring to me the older I got. So we expanded into politics, music, and fashion. It doesn’t always have to just be centered around celebrity gossip anymore.
Let’s talk about that sense of responsibility. We have a presidential election in November. How are you approaching coverage?
If you were to ask me in the last election, in 2020, I thought that every Black person should be a democrat. I thought it was the media’s job to come out and tell people how to be a democrat. This year, though, I’ve taken my political viewpoints out of the news cycle. I want to give Donald Trump and Kamala Harris the same unbiased coverage. We can’t not cover Trump getting shot or his felony charges. A lot of media heads have told me I need to endorse Vice President Harris, and I’m like, “No, y’all are not going to pressure me to endorse any specific political candidate.” To me, that’s not our job as media. It’s our job to present unbiased information and let the audience decide what they want to do with it. I don’t want to manipulate our audience with the power that we have. I don’t want to use it that way.
But The Shade Room has been called out in the past for spreading misinformation and harmful rhetoric.
So, we have hired a consulting firm to help us with our politics. These are big players in the political space. Their job is to really help us properly report on politics without leaning one way or the other.
Right.
We try really hard to make sure we are presenting everything in a fair manner. How could The Shade Room be considered a right-wing platform? I don’t understand how people try to spin it. When you look at the candidates we have interviewed—it’s Joe Biden, it’s Kamala Harris, it’s Stacey Abrams. We have never interviewed anybody from the Republican party, though I am open to doing so. If we were a right-wing platform, you think we would be platforming people of the opposite party? We were just at the White House for the Black excellence party. We’ve been on Air Force Two. We have followed [Vice President Harris].
Given the notorious influence of the site, I’m curious what celebrities have asked you to not post about them?
That’s the misconception—people think celebrities don’t want to be on The Shade Room. It’s the opposite. Celebrities do want to be on The Shade Room. I get cursed out more for not posting a celebrity than posting them. If it’s a scandal, that’s different. Diddy called and threatened me and my team one time. We posted an investigation about him not paying Bad Boy artists. That was two years ago. It wasn’t an explicit violent threat, more a vague threat to, quote-unquote, take us down. [Diddy’s attorney did not respond to an email from WIRED seeking comment.]
Speaking of Diddy. This week he was arrested and held without bail on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution. What do you see as the role of the Black press in this moment?
This is gonna be hard, but to give balanced coverage. And you know why? We’ve seen the Cassie video. Dawn Richard also sued him. However, he’s innocent until proven guilty—and we have to cover that. We owe balanced coverage to Diddy. The way he’s been reported on in the media, it has a racial undertone to it.
How so?
I do believe we owe Diddy balanced coverage and that’s what we’ve tried to do. I mean, of course we are going to post about his 1,000 bottles of baby oil. You can’t not post that. But at the same time, we will post his lawyer’s statements, we will post celebrities speaking out on his behalf. Black people who do crimes, whether you’re rich or poor, it doesn’t matter what class you’re in. We do not get the same media coverage. It’s guilty, guilty, guilty and it’s exploit, expose, exploit, expose. I’m talking about Homeland Security. I’m talking about the feds. I’m talking about the way they handle things. So we owe him that. [The indictment against Diddy claimed that authorities seized 1,000 bottles of baby oil during raids on his residences in March 2024.]
Is the fact that Diddy’s alleged crimes are only now coming to public attention a failure of the media?
Traditional white media wasn’t covering it. And to an extent, Black media is responsible. But did we not cover when Diddy beat up Drake? Did we not cover when Diddy’s bodyguard spoke out? That’s how these rumors spread. It’s how everybody knew about these rumors in the culture. It just wasn’t taken seriously because the people that came forward were not deemed as truly credible. [The incident between Diddy and Drake allegedly took place in 2014. While neither has publicly confirmed or denied it happened, Diddy previously alleged Drake had stolen the beat for the Grammy-nominated track “0 to 100.”]
In the music industry, at least, his alleged wrongdoings were an open secret of sorts. Given its long history of exploitation—particularly against women—is the music industry due for a reckoning?
One-thousand percent it is a failure of the music industry. And they need to bust everybody else out. The music industry is so dark behind the scenes. Even the things I’ve seen. And that’s what I’m talking about. I will know certain information, but I can’t post it because it’s not my place to out a victim. If a victim is telling me they don’t want to be outed, it’s not my place to out them. I’m not going to do that.
Right.
At the end of the day, there are many monsters in the music industry. There are Black media moguls and gatekeepers at the top of the industry who people believe are the image of excellence, but behind the scenes they are the most egregious, disgusting people. I’m ready for all of this to come to light. We are not done. There are a lot more. People need to see beyond the facade. I can’t wait.
The Shade Room celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. How are you thinking about expansion?
If you want to get to where BET and Essence got, or even past that—and I’m seeing past that—nobody’s ever been able to do that without taking investment money. And that saddens me because I feel like we need to have that. We need to have a Black-owned company be able to reach those heights without having to take investment money or lose ownership. When you have investors come in, you hire a boss for yourself. And that boss is more concerned with residuals, with ROI. And that’s the most important thing—not the culture, not the brand, not the people.
You want to preserve that.
It’s been a hard journey these 10 years. It has not been easy at all. Every now and then I think about selling a big part of The Shade Room, if not all of it, and going to Aruba and living my best life on the beach. The thing that keeps me here—I’m like, well, wait, there’s a vision. We are at least going to throw everything we have at it.
