Unlike her costar KaMillion, who submitted a video audition for her "Rap Sh!t" role, Osman found her way onto the HBO Max series through another route: the writers' room. "We actually hired Aida as a writer before we cast her in the show, but we just could not get her out of our mind," Rae previously told Harper's Bazaar. "After the chemistry test between her and KaMillion, it was a no-brainer."
Osman also tells POPSUGAR that one of the main reasons she got tapped to star in the show is because she helped create the character she portrays on screen. "You keep writing character traits for Shawna that are specific only [to me]," she says of making her "weird transition." "It was kind of unheard of, honestly. I don't know if that's ever really happened before."