In December 2023, an AI study spearheaded by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (GDI) in partnership with Google Research found that screentime for darker-skinned actresses had increased by nine percent over the last 12 years. However, if we were to take a look at the current slates of primetime, streaming, blockbuster movies and even daytime programming—it likely wouldn’t reflect that finding.

To be clear, Hollywood has made strides in its endeavor to promote more diversity and inclusion in TV and film. Successful shows like “Insecure,” “Black-ish”, “Atlanta,” “Empire,” “Scandal,” “All American,” “Queen Sugar,” “Snowfall,” “Power,” “Abbott Elementary” and “Bel-Air” are all proof positive of that. But when it comes to solid representation for actresses of a darker hue in more nuanced, leading roles that lie outside of the “funny/sassy/angry friend,” “hyper-sexual friend,” “down on her luck friend” or the “struggling mother” tropes—the offerings are slim. For actresses under 30 specifically, the opportunities they receive in comparison to the ones offered to actresses of a lighter hue and/or those who identify as bi-racial are alarming.

For what it’s worth, this isn’t a drag or criticism to sisters with lighter melanin, but what it is a callout to the industry that seems to only want use them as the forms of representation for Black women across various mediums. From binge-worthy series, must-see movies to even your everyday commercials—Hollywood gatekeepers are consistently choosing to send the implicit message that only one type of Black woman is acceptable to be onscreen and that monoracial Black actresses of a darker hue are not. Nor are they talented enough to take on lead roles that speak to broader facets of our lived experience.

It’s a sad observation that falls in line with the long-discussed (and very well proven) negative and pervasive trend of colorism in the industry that has prompted more and more folks in and outside of the industry to speak up and speak out about it. Most recently, a viral thread posted on X/Twitter in August pointed out the lack of dark-skinned girls in nearly 10 upcoming young adult projects. A quick search for “darkskinned actresses” on the same platform will also provide countless comments from users expressing their frustrations and concerns over the increasing erasure of darker-skinned actresses.

“Darkskin actors/actresses have the range to play more than slaves and distressed black people, i promise,” wrote one user.

“We really need to talk about mediocre lightskin actresses accepting roles in movies depicting characters that were darkskin then turn around to talk about the lack of representation darkskin women in movies,” penned another.

“why do these tv and movie producers act like it’s hard to choose darkskin actors and actresses? it’s literally as simple as saying yes. they just refuse to give them a chance,” another said.

“I just think it’s crazy how industries can always find darkskin actresses to play slaves but they always pick a ‘lightskin’ to play a doctor or a CEO,but y’all not ready for that conversation(I just feel like everybody should have a chance and they stop casting the same three ppl),” another user wrote.

But the concerns aren’t just coming from the consumers. Back in 2018, “Euphoria” and “Dune” star Zendaya called out her own privilege and Hollywood’s propensity to cast lighter-skinned actresses that look like her in more projects than her darker-skinned counterparts.

“As a Black woman, as a light-skinned Black woman, it’s important that I’m using my privilege, my platform to show you how much beauty there is in the African American community,” she said at Beautycon Festival in 2018. “I am Hollywood’s, I guess you could say, acceptable version of a Black girl, and that needs to change. We’re vastly too beautiful and too interesting for me to be the only representation of that.”

Later that same year, “The Acolyte” and “Bodies Bodies Bodies” star Amandla Stenberg also spoke out about her bi-racial/light-skinned privilege in an interview with Variety where she discussed turning down the role of Shuri in “Black Panther” in favor of letting a darker-skinned actress have the role. She also roped in Zendaya and “Black-ish” star Yara Shahidi into the conversation saying:

Something interesting has happened with me and Yara and Zendaya—there is a level of accessibility of being biracial that has afforded us attention in a way that I don’t think would have been afforded to us otherwise. Me and Yara and Zendaya are perceived in the same way, I guess, because we are lighter-skinned black girls and we fill this interesting place of being accessible to Hollywood and accessible to white people in a way that darker-skinned girls are not afforded the same privilege.”

Keeping in line with the rule of threes, let’s consider these darker-skinned actresses—Marsai Martin, Ryan Destiny and Lovie Simone—and the roles and opportunities they’ve been afforded since starring in hit shows.

Martin, who had her breakout role in ABC’s popular primetime series “Black-ish” has starred in few major films since the show wrapped in 2022 (“Little” and “Fantasy Football”) but has mostly been doing voiceover work. This is in spite of the fact that she’s super talented and made history as the youngest Black producer ever and youngest person to ever executive produce a film. Let’s not even talk about how her own coming-of-age show that she pitched for Disney Channel, namely “Saturdays” that featured a cast of mostly darker-skinned girls, got canceled after only one season.

Destiny, an uber talented singer alone, landed her breakout role in Lee Daniel’s “Star” back in 2016, but the show only lasted three seasons before it was ultimately canceled. And while she did land a recurring role in season three of “Grown-ish” and is set to star as the lead in the upcoming sports film “The Fire Inside,” she’s been relatively absent from the screen.

Simone, whose breakout role in OWN’s highly successful series “Greenleaf” back in 2016, should’ve made her a household name—but she hasn’t been given much airtime either. And while she did initially find some success after the show went off the air in 2020 by starring in shows like Prime Video’s “Selah and the Spades,” “The Craft: Legacy,” and Apple TV+’s hit show “Manhunt” released earlier this year—she, like Destiny and Martin have not been afforded nearly as many opportunities like their lighter-skinned counterparts.

Now this isn’t to negate the successes of fellow brown-skinned and darker-skinned actresses over 30 like Issa Rae, Keke Palmer, Viola Davis, Lupita Nyong’o, Regina King, Gabrielle Union and others. But even when we consider them plus others like Aja Naomi King, Deborah Ayorinde, Danielle Brooks, Ashley Blaine Featherson, Antoinette Robertson, Gabrielle Dennis and Micahela Coel—we don’t see them nearly enough in comparison to those like Zazie Beetz, Tessa Thompson, Laura Harrier, Alexandra Shipp, Zoe Kravitz, Taylor Russel and Zoe Saldana. And that’s no shade at all, it’s just facts.

While the fix to this issue seems to be fairly simple—hiring more dark-skinned girls and women in nuanced and leading roles—I’m not sure what more it’ll take to get the Hollywood machine to wake up and realize how much of a disservice they have done and are continuing to do. It’s beyond time for the beauty in our culture—in all its hues—to be equally acknowledged, represented and celebrated onscreen.