The Shade Room (TSR) is a media company, founded by

Angelica Nwandu Angelica Nwandu (born 1989) is the founder of the Shade Room (TSR), an Instagram-based media company focused on celebrity gossip. The site has since branched out into covering politics and focusing on Black culture news. The Shade Room has over ...

in March 2014.

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

-based, The Shade Room offers celebrity and trending news on an hourly basis, predominantly within the African American community;

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

called it the "

TMZ TMZ is a tabloid news website owned by Fox Corporation. It made its debut on November 8, 2005, originally as a collaboration between AOL and Telepictures, a division of Warner Bros., until Time Warner divested AOL in 2009. On September 13, 202 ...

of Instagram". "Shade" in this case refers to a slang term for quips or wisecracks, especially those made with the intent of debasing their target(s). Nwandu lives and works from

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and employs a staff of five working on The Shade Room. The Shade Room has also been compared to MediaTakeOut with one exception, the majority of The Shade Room's news is reported primarily on

Format

Nwandu avoided the typical blog format in favor of publishing full-length stories on Instagram. Nwandu found Instagram suited to her vision for The Shade Room due to its image-based format. After getting established in the Instagram format, the site was then expanded to include community news, trending news, and user interaction. The Shade Room refers to readers as "roommates", who often provide leads on celebrities to The Shade Room personnel. Readers of The Shade Room are called "Roommates" because they "live" in The Shade Room, some visitors return on a daily basis. By the end of 2015, the site was reported to have 2.6 million followers, although the company has less than a dozen employees. In June 2016, ''

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

'' reported that The Shade Room's followers across platforms totaled more than eight million people. The site now boasts more than 17 million followers and has since launched a new brand, The Shade Room Teens, that has 1.2 million followers. The high readership has drawn celebrity attention to The Shade Room and some have even participated directly on the site. Nwandu no longer is the primary voice of the site, having stepped back to allow others participate. In October 2020, the TSR reported 21 million followers on its Instagram account.

Coverage

On October 10, 2015, The Shade Room was one of the first to report that

Lamar Odom Lamar Joseph Odom (born November 6, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player. As a member of the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA), he won championships in 2009 and 2010 and was named the NBA Six ...

was found at Dennis Hoff's Love Ranch in Nevada. On December 12, 2015,

Countess Vaughn Countess Danielle Vaughn (born August 8, 1978) is an American actress, singer and television personality. She is best known for her role as Kim Parker on the UPN sitcoms ''Moesha'' and its spin-off ''The Parkers'', and as Alexandria DeWitt on '' ...

, former star of the hit show ''

Moesha ''Moesha'' () is an American television sitcom that aired on UPN from January 23, 1996, to May 14, 2001. The series stars R&B singer Brandy Norwood as Moesha Denise Mitchell, an African-American teenager living with her upper middle class famil ...

'' posted an apology to Brandy on

. This apology was monumental as Brandy told

Vibe Magazine ''Vibe'' is an American music and entertainment magazine founded by producers David Salzman and Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip hop music artists, actors and other entertainers. After shutting down production ...

in 1998 that Vaughn left the show out of jealousy. The Shade Room was the first to report the apology with platforms like Vibe,

Black Entertainment Television Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los ...

and Rolling Out Magazine covering the story shortly thereafter. In January 2016, The Shade Room covered the love triangle brewing between

Soulja Boy DeAndre Cortez Way (born July 28, 1990), known professionally as Soulja Boy (formerly Soulja Boy Tell 'Em), is an American rapper and record producer. He rose to prominence, after his self published debut single "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" peake ...

, Nia Riley and Nas Smith, all reality stars from the hit show Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood. This controversy sparked an original song where The Shade Room was mentioned in the lyrics.

Accolades

Recognizing founder Nwandu on its 2016 30 Under 30 list,

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

said she "revolutionized celebrity gossip" with the founding of The Shade Room.

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately ...

named her to its list of "18 Female Founders Who Killed It in 2015" and

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

says Nwandu is "figuring things out faster than everyone else."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shade Room, The American news websites Internet properties established in 2014 2014 establishments in the United States Instagram Instagram accounts