Raamla Mohamed and Kerry Washington on building an unapologetically Black world in ‘Reasonable Doubt’

“Reasonable Doubt” creator and executive producer Raamla Mohamed and Kerry Washington reveal the magic behind the show’s storytelling.

If you’ve ever pressed play on Hulu’s “Reasonable Doubt,” you already know it’s not your average legal drama. It’s raw. It’s messy. It’s sexy. And most importantly? It’s Black as hell.

At CultureCon’s “Reasonably Iconic: A Celebration of Women Rewriting Narratives and Shaping Cultural Impact” event, creator Raamla Mohamed and executive producer Kerry Washington sat down to unpack why the show feels so real, and what happens when you let Black women lead the storytelling.

“Obviously, watching the show, it’s a very, you know, Black cast and Black show. But for me, I felt like having an all Black writer’s room kind of took Black off the table in some ways, like there wasn’t anyone that you had to explain something to,” she said, joking about not having to explain the difference between a weave and a u-part wig. “We actually could be humans and talk about the things that we struggle with, and then the things that happen in the show that are Black, or just, you know, kind of the inherent things—that language that we all share. And so, you know, there are fathers in the room, there are husbands, there are mothers, and single people—like we all kind of can have these conversations just about what it’s like to be an adult, which is a lot. Being an adult is one thing; being Black on top of that, and then being Black and female, is another thing.”

That cultural shorthand meant Mohamed and her team could focus on the human experience because, as she points out, beyond the drama, the show is about “Jax as a mother, a wife, a career woman, like balancing all these things that are very human.”

And if you’ve been watching, you know Jax has been on a journey. Mohamed said that growth was intentional.

“Jax [represents that] you can be a boss, you can be all this stuff or whatever, but Jax has a lot of work to do, like as a character, and as on top of it as she is, I wanted to show what happens on the other side,” the creator explained. “You go through the trauma, but what happens when you actually do the work?” 

That’s especially clear in Jax’s marriage. The days of “boy, bye” blowups gradually turned into intentional conversations and healing, which not only makes for good TV but models healthy love. 

Like Mohammed, that portrayal of healthy love feels so special for Washington. “I take being a wife so seriously, and I love seeing this couple. It shows us that on the other side of the work is more fun, more intimacy, more joy, and more sex. That’s, like, it’s so exciting to see that being modeled.” 

In addition to amplifying Black storytelling, Mohammed and Washington’s collaboration on “Reasonable Doubt” feels like a full-circle moment for the two who first worked together on the hit show “Scandal.” 

“When we started working together, Raamla was a research assistant in the writers’ room at Scandal,” Washington explained.  “There’s so much trust and history in the ways that we’ve been able to really lean into each other, and I think, encourage each other to grow and take risks. I feel really lucky to be on the Raamla train and to be supporting her and advocating for her as an executive producer.” 

That co-sign carried weight. “I feel so blessed, honestly, to be a young writer, and to have Kerry as number one on this huge show, but she showed the directors on set that she respected my opinion. And then, of course, that makes them respect my opinion,” Mohamed said.

You rarely hear these situations, whether it’s with Black women or just women in general. Sometimes we need to pull each other up. And so Kerry had the power. And she said, ‘This writer is good. I vouch for this person,’” she continued. “I mean that changes careers.” 

Because at the end of the day, that’s what “Reasonable Doubt” embodies: Black women being fully themselves, growing through the mess, and pulling each other up while they do it.