Vanessa Baden Kelly, a writer on HBO’s new superhero series Lanterns, recently opened up about her career path on the New Rockstars podcast, revealing that she spent a decade as a left-wing community organizer before returning to entertainment. Her past work included collaborations with Democratic politician Karen Bass and attorney Ben Crump, according to a report from Breitbart News.
Baden Kelly, who first gained recognition as a child actress on Nick Jr.’s Gullah Gullah Island and later starred as Kyra Rockmore on the popular Keenan & Kel show, took a roughly ten-year hiatus from acting after 2000. During that time, she shifted her focus to community activism, working alongside figures like Bass and Crump. By 2011, she re-entered the entertainment industry, this time pursuing writing as well as acting.
On the podcast, hosted by Erik Voss and Jessica Clemons, Baden Kelly reflected on why her acting career stalled during that period. She claimed that around 2000, “diversity” began “slipping backwards,” which hampered her opportunities. “I was working for Karen Bass while still trying to audition, but nothing was really moving because we had slipped backwards in the diversity revolution. And so I started to write,” she said.
The conversation also touched on her work for Lanterns, the DC Comics adaptation produced by James Gunn and helmed by Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof. Baden Kelly said she wrote a scene in which a character explains racism to an alien, a moment that some viewers and critics have interpreted as particularly preachy or “woke.” She explained that the scene was set in 1986, a time when “this lady knows nothing about nothing,” according to her comments on the podcast.
The New Rockstars co-host speculated that the alien species recruiting Green Lanterns might not have been familiar with Earth’s racial dynamics, especially since the Rodney King riots—which occurred in Los Angeles in 1992—had not yet happened when the scene takes place. Baden Kelly enthusiastically agreed with that interpretation, the report noted.
Lanterns has drawn criticism, particularly for its third episode, which features a character delivering a lecture on “white privilege.” Some viewers defended the scene as a portrayal of a flawed character, suggesting the show did not endorse the views expressed. But the actor who plays John Stewart’s father, J. Alphonse Nicholson, offered a different perspective on another podcast. He reportedly said the series explores how different the world could be if people trusted black women, both like his on-screen wife and like former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Baden Kelly’s background as an activist has fueled ongoing debates about the political messaging in Lanterns, which has been described by some as a rehash of Black Lives Matter-era rhetoric. The series, based on the Green Lantern Corps—a multi-species intergalactic police force—has faced similar scrutiny to Lindelof’s previous work on Watchmen, which also incorporated themes of race and social justice.
As Lanterns continues to air, the conversations around its writing and themes are likely to persist, with Baden Kelly’s recent podcast appearance adding another layer to the discourse.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2026/09/03/top-writer-for-hbos-woke-lanterns-superhero-series-worked-for-ben-crump-karen-bass-in-decade-of-left-wing-activism/