Myha’la on playing the voice of reason in tech’s messiest biopic

I’m interviewing Myha’la Herrold at the Soho Hotel, London, directly opposite a giant Bumble ad featuring couples who met on the app with the slogan “For the Love of Love.” It feels fitting (and probably purposefully selected) as we discuss her role as Tisha in Rachel Lee Goldenberg’s Swiped, a biographical drama about Whitney Wolfe Herd, Bumble’s founder and Tinder’s co-founder. “It’s insane that we don’t know a woman co-founded the biggest dating app [Tinder] of all time”, Myha’la exclaims.

Swiped recounts Wolfe Herd’s mistreatment at Tinder, the harassment she endured after suing the company, and how it led her to create Bumble. Since Wolfe Herd signed an NDA as part of her settlement with Tinder, she could not participate in the film. For producer and star Lily James (who plays Wolfe Herd), her silence was one of the reasons she wanted to make the movie: “Part of why I wanted to make this film is to explore how NDAs are weaponised against women. In a way, this film becomes a form of reclamation not just for Whitney but for women who have been told to keep quiet,” she told Bloomberg.

The film offers a grim portrait of the pre-MeToo workplace, rife with sexism and racism, alongside the era’s optimism about tech’s world-changing potential. Yet Swiped also feels like a glossy advert for Bumble and a bid to rehabilitate Wolfe Herd’s image as she returns to Bumble as CEO, after leaving in 2023. In the mid-to-late 2010s, Wolfe Herd became best known as one of the central figures in the girl boss era. A once celebrated figure, it soon became clear to the general public that one woman becoming a billionaire (off the exploitation of others) does not help nor change the material conditions of other women. While Swiped attempts to be an optimistic, feel-good tale about a woman overcoming adversity in a male-dominated industry, it’s difficult to believe in this narrative when it surrounds a billionaire capitalist, who the film describes as ‘self-made’. 

Myha’la is one of the standouts in the otherwise forcedly optimistic biopic. She plays Tisha, a goth Black woman working in tech, who befriends Wolfe Herd at Tinder. Tisha is sharp, the voice of reason and is frequently overlooked. We spoke to Myha’la about playing and being an outspoken Black woman, the optimism of the 2010s, and not letting yourself be mistreated by friends.

We’ve had several tech-centred biopic TV shows and films over the last few years: WeCrashed about Adam Neumann and The Dropout about Elizabeth Holmes. What initially attracted you to Swiped?

Myha’la: I have seen both WeCrashed and The Dropout. I love this shit, honestly. This was just a phone call, where they were like, ‘Can you come to do this movie?’ and I was like, ‘Oh, cool story. Yeah, totally.’ Also, I think it’s insane that we don’t know a woman co-founded the biggest dating app of all time and created the second-largest one of all time; you know what I mean? So I just thought that was so cool. Also, Tisha is cool. She’s a goth Black girl who plays drums, and I’ve played a goth drummer in another movie, so I was like, ‘Well why not?’

The film depicts the entirety of the 2010s, where there was a lot of tech-optimism and hope for the future – something that a lot of young people don’t have anymore. I think it’s one of the reasons Gen Z loves millennial TV shows like Girls or romanticise 2010s BuzzFeed. Were you also aware of that optimism when you were playing Tisha? Did it inform your characterisation of her?  

Myha’la: There was so much optimism then. I don’t think I was thinking about it at the time, but there’s so much optimism in the characters and in what they are trying to do. Tisha had no doubt that this was going to work and be amazing. She had no doubt that Bumble was the right name for the app. Her character, in particular, had to be the optimistic one because she was supporting her friend and trying to get this thing off the ground [Bumble]. In contrast, Whitney had a little more uncertainty, as it hadn’t worked out in her favour the first time [with Tinder]. So having that contrast with them was really important. 

It’s not like I had to do research or try extra hard to imagine what it would be like to be an outspoken, smart Black woman in a male-dominated space. That happens to me all the time

I found myself feeling envious of the depiction of the 2010s in Swiped. There’s a part in the film where Whitney learns the word ‘intersectional’ and mentions it to Tisha. Although it was a bit cringe, it was also a reminder of when that language carried real weight, and of why those feminist and social justice movements struggled to last, as they were ultimately co-opted by corporate feminism.

Myha’la: Yeah, to me, Tisha feels very much like the grounding character, because she is coming from the lens of intersectionality already. She has two minority check boxes, while everyone else has none. And I actually think that Rachel’s decision to include a Black woman’s perspective in this was the thing that we can relate to today, because I feel like in the 2010s nobody was talking about intersectionality in those offices. They just weren’t. Or if they were, it was a quieter conversation. I think it was cool that she [Tisha] was the only character thinking about it in that way.   

Have you ever used a dating app before? What’s your general opinion of them? Are you of the camp that believes they’ve ruined dating forever, or revolutionised it? Or are you a secret third thing? 

Myha’la: [Laughs] I don’t want to give them too much power. They didn’t ruin or revolutionise dating. We have phones and we love love, we’re gonna figure out a way to cross the two. I tried to be on the apps a handful of times, and I couldn’t do it. Meeting strangers to me sounds like my personal fifth circle of hell; I’m way too shy. But I met my partner in the DMs of Instagram, so who knows. I have friends who just got engaged who met on Hinge, so I know it works for sure. But I also know, like any other space on the internet and any other space in this world, there are bad actors and sketchy people; you can’t really avoid that. That is the pitfall of the internet. 

I believe two things can be true at once. You can be supportive and sympathetic, and also not allow yourself to be mistreated, especially by your friends

There’s a heated exchange between Tisha and Whitney after Whitney is pushed out of Tinder. Whitney is furious that Tisha stays at Tinder despite the harassment she’s faced, while Tisha points out that Whitney only cares about the mistreatment of women at Tinder; now she’s the target. She also remarks that Whitney has an easier path up the tech ladder as a White woman. Swiped offers an interesting commentary on the realities of being a woman in the tech industry. As someone who played not just a woman, but a Black woman in tech, what did you take away from that?

Myha’la: It [the mistreatment] is not specific to tech. Obviously, I think it’s exacerbated in tech because it remains male-dominated, and the vibe is pretty annoying. Like the gendered way spaces like tech and finance state that you have to be more logical and less emotional. Really, what they’re saying is be less like a woman and more like a man, which I vehemently disagree with. So yeah, I don’t necessarily think it’s so specific or different in tech. I think we come up against the same walls and suffer the same perception as Black women in professional spaces; in tech, finance, any industry or any kind. It’s not like I had to do research or try extra hard to imagine what it would be like to be an outspoken, smart Black woman in a male-dominated space. That happens to me all the time. 

As we’ve already established, Tisha is a real voice of reason in Swiped. What was your favourite thing about playing her? 

Myha’la: Well, one of my favourite things about playing Tisha was that wig, hunny! That wiggggg! I want those wigs so badly. I appreciated that Tisha, even though Whitney was her girl, and she sympathised with her plight, that she would not allow herself to get walked on. I believe two things can be true at once. You can be supportive and sympathetic, and also not allow yourself to be mistreated, especially by your friends. Especially when that friend is talking about how poorly a woman is being treated. I thought that was a really good and powerful balance in the film. 

Swiped is out September 19 on Disney+