Real Wife

“If you don’t see what you want to see, you have to work your butt off to create it,” says Cameron Esposito, a comedian known for her LGBTQ material who, along with her wife Rhea Butcher, also a comedian, is executive-producing and starring in Take My Wife .

Premiering in August on Seeso, NBC’s streaming comedy channel, the six-episode single-camera comedy series focuses on a lesbian couple and mirrors Esposito and Butcher’s real lives — their Take My Wife alter egos are stand-up comedians devoted to their careers as well as their relationship. “Queer women, please enjoy it,” Esposito says. “I hope that this feels real to you.”

Beyond lesbians eager to see a lesbian relationship at the forefront of a series, Esposito believes Take My Wife will appeal to anyone who enjoys stand-up comedy and is interested in seeing what life is like for comedians both on and off stage.

Esposito and Butcher’s characters run an alternative comedy night in Los Angeles, and the likes of Maria Bamford, Paul F. Tompkins and Ron Funches appear as themselves. “These are people at the top of their game who have done a lot of TV and just happened to be in town the one day we needed them,” Esposito says. “That was really great.”

It was also incredibly fulfilling to work with her wife on a creative project.

“When Rhea and I first met, we wanted to work together even before we knew we wanted to date each other,” she reflects. “We were both in other relationships, and the first time Rhea ever did stand-up was at an open mic that I used to run in Chicago. I saw her and was immediately like, ‘Oh, my God, this woman is brilliant, and I want to work with her.’ We started making plans for our career together really quickly.”

They could have never imagined then that a few years later they would be married — they tied the knot last December — and making a television show based on their life together. “I have to constantly remind myself, ‘Yes, of course we’re wives! Yes, of course we make a TV show!’” Esposito says.

“We are living in a really great time to be a comic,” she muses. “Newer voices and non-traditional voices are embraced. It’s not all straight white men.”

This article originally appeared in emmy magazine, Issue No. 7, 2016