Joya Barris

Joya Barris is a character featured in #blackAF. She is portrayed by Rashida Jones. She's married to writer and actor Kenya Barris, who plays himself on the show while the story is fictional. She is also the mother of six children- Chloe Barris, Drea Barris, Izzy Barris, Pops Barris, Kam Barris, and Brooklyn Barris. The number six is said to be based on the number of children Kenya actually has in real life. The family (based on the fictional account of Kenya Barris' real family) lives in California.

Season 1
Initially, we see Joya after Sunday Brunch at the Four Seasons "third-wheeling" Kenya and Steve Levitan's conversation. Uninterested, Joya tries to end the conversation as their fancy car pulls up. Later at home, we see Joya's sarcastic nature come out when Kenya says she looks cute and asks her if she took a shower and she says, "I did shower, thank you for noticing." They begin to talk about brunch and Kenya asks her if she thought people were looking at them the whole time. Joya says no almost immediately and back it up by claiming that they are a very attractive group of people and the sommelier had to break up two fights their kids were having. Kenya then starts to talk about White Gaze, and Joya misunderstands him, thinking this somehow relates to white gay people. This prompts a discussion that Joya clearly didn't want to start. To avoid the discussion, she tries to flee the scene by saying she has a long day ahead and she has to leave, but her attempts fail. It's clear to Joya that Kenya is overreacting about Steve's (who owns a White Hybrid Prius) opinion about their surprised expression about their sports car, but pretends to listen and care. To make matters worse, Danny- Kenya's white and jewish assistant, makes matters worse by "dripping in pure judgement". Joya, fed up with the matter, chimes in by pointing out her confusion on why Kenya's assistant who he barely pays enough is the reason he has to wear fancy clothes and drive fancy cars and asks why it's Danny's fault. Kenya shoots her down immediately and she gives up. She decided to go to In-N-Out and is almost pulled out of the situation when Danny asks another question. Frustrated, Joya denies Danny anything off the menu and bans him from In-N-Out. Now while Kenya is ranting, Joya practices her method of nodding and pretending to pay attention in order to stay calm. As Danny continues to not get the message, Joya gives up and leaves. Later on in a confessional, Joya complains about Kenya "NS-flexing", and claims that she begged him not get the car that was later fully customized. Later though, a video on the day of the car sale proves that Joya forced him to buy it by issuing a threat that she would go "fuck somebody with the exact same car" is he didn't buy it. Later on, Kenya decides to tone down his "schtick" a bit by wearing simpler clothes, and Joya laughs at the statement. She says that Kenya is basically one giant sweatsuit which he calls "athleisure wear", which is an insult to both athletics and leisure. After Chloe dyes her hair purple, Kenya asks Joya if she knew what Chloe did. Unaware of the context, Joya pretends she does because if she doesn't know what her daughter's done, she's basically admitting she's not a good mom which makes Kenya the better parent. After Kenya tells her, it's revealed that Joya knew about it and thought it looked cute, something Kenya disagrees with. She says if the worst thing Chloe does is have purple hair, they're good. Kenya then blatantly calls her a bad mom. When Pops gets home from school after his birthday, he says no one cared that is was his birthday and they only cared about the doughnuts. In an attempt to comfort him, Joya tells him to breathe and tells him that he still has seven hours left of his birthday and tells him that they can do something fun, but he declines sadly. Joya then pressures Kenya to go up and talk to him but he says he thought this was "her thing" now. Drea then reveals that Joya used to be a lawyer but she quit because she had many kids, and before she finished, Joya interrupted saying that she was still a lawyer and an active member of the California Bar Association. She says she was also the editor of her law review and clerked for Justice Ginsberg and claimed she was the first black woman to do that. She said that her life later changed and Kenya and herself made a decision that she would stay home with the family. She says that it's been great, but her overcompensation makes it clear that is hasn't been great. Joya and Kenya later go out to dinner with Joya's law school "friends" John and Kara, and the night is very rocky.