Two kids, cousins, thrown together in Mobile by family circumstances, find they have some outsider tastes in common – science fiction, comic books. One grows up to be a nationally known comedian, writer, TV host and documentary filmmaker. The other has a titanic impact on science fiction and fantasy, winning a “genius grant” along the way.

Sound far-fetched? It can happen. It has happened.

One of the kids was W. Kamau Bell, spending summers in Mobile with his father. His credits include the Emmy-winning CNN series “United Shades of America,” and he has just released a new HBO Max documentary titled “1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed.” It’s a fascinating look at what some cute, bright, precocious children (including two of Bell’s daughters) have to say about growing up with mixed-race backgrounds.

The other kid was also spending part of her life in Mobile, after her parents’ divorce, but had one foot in the very different world of Brooklyn. The girl he refers to as Nora is now better known to the world as N.K. Jemisin. Her “Broken Earth” trilogy made her both the first writer to win three consecutive Hugo Awards and the first to win for all three novels in a trilogy. Since then she’s won two more Hugos for a novelette and for a run of Green Lantern comics titled “Far Sector.” She also was among the 2020 recipients of the MacArthur “genius grant” fellowships.

Bell recently spoke to AL.com about “1000% Me,” and in the process he looked back at that childhood meeting of the minds. It’s something he’s touched on before writing about it in his 2017 book “The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell.”

“So like me, Nora knew there was a world out there much bigger and grander than Mobile,” he wrote. “It just didn’t suit her. We were these two weirdos. She liked to write outlandish fantasy stories, and I like to draw. I had my fantasies about being a comic book artist. But reality caught up with me when I was in about sixth grade and kids who didn’t care about drawing at all could draw better than me.”

More recently, he elaborated:

“She’s writing, I’m drawing, poorly, in my grandmother’s house on Government Street,” said Bell, laughing. “I mean, I think I’m maybe the most excited person about that. Just because I have visceral memories of us sitting on the floor talking about our future lives and what we wanted to do. And I saw Nora – The way in which we were distinguished, I dropped out of college and started to do stand-up comedy. She was like, ‘No, I need health insurance and I need to be able to pay my rent.’ So she went a very professional, working at universities, route. Being a counselor. But kept writing on the side, and I saw it happen over time. I saw it be like, ‘Oh, I’m writing for websites.’ ‘Oh, I got a short story published.’ I saw it happen. For her, I was just happy, and at one point I was just happy she was still writing even if she was not the professional writer she thought she was going to be.”

Bell, who won three Emmys for his CNN series “United Shades of America,” paused for a big laugh at that thought.

“And then, to see her explode into this international renown, [to have her works] translated into different languages … like, every time I won an Emmy, she would win two Hugos. It was like, I can’t keep up with you. ‘I won an Emmy.’ ‘I won my second Hugo.’ ‘I won a second Emmy.’ ‘I won my third Hugo in a row.’ I couldn’t be more excited about the fact. And I think it should just be, I think a lot of time in places like Mobile, parents think their kids can’t do blah-blah-blah because that’s not what happens here. And I hope people use me and Nora as examples of kids who have been through this city. … There’s a lot that can be accomplished.”

So what’s next? Bell said he has a lot of irons in the fire, including a likely return to podcasting.

“Now I’m a documentary filmmaker, which is very exciting,” Bell said. “I have a lot of projects that are sort of in development … ‘United Shades’ is no more but I’m working on a new TV show idea that I think is very close to being announced. I’ve got three kids, as I say, and they like to eat every day. So I don’t stop.”

Jemisin’s most recent book is “The World We Make,” a sequel to her 2020 novel “The City We Became.” Variety reported in February that Walden Media had acquired rights to make a TV series based on the two novels. In 2021, film industry media reported that TriStar Pictures would produce “Broken Earth” movies based on adaptations by Jemisin herself.