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Ziwerekoru "Ziwe" Fumudoh[1] is an American comedian and writer known for her satirical commentary on politics, race relations, and young adulthood.[2][3]
| Ziwe | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Ziwerekoru Fumudoh |
| Born | February 27, 1992 |
| Education | Northwestern University (BA) |
| Years active | 2013–present |
| Genres | |
| Subject(s) | |
| Website | Official website |
In 2017, she created the YouTube comedy show Baited with Ziwe and its 2020 Instagram Live iteration.[4] She wrote for Desus & Mero from 2018 to 2020,[5] and she co-hosted Crooked Media's Hysteria podcast in 2018.[6]
Fumudoh starred in and executive produced the Showtime variety series Ziwe (2021–2022).[7][8] She published a collection of essays called Black Friend in October 2023.[9]
Born February 27, 1992, Fumudoh grew up in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the second of three children to Nigerian immigrant parents.[3][10][11][12]
She graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts in 2010 and attended Northwestern University, where she lived in McCulloch Hall her first year.[13] She wrote for student publications including Purp Magazine, Northwestern Sketch Television, and Project SOARD.[14][13] In 2014 she graduated with a double major in radio, television, and film and African American studies and a minor in creative writing concentrating in poetry.[1][15][3][16][17]
2013–2017: Early years
In 2013, Fumudoh worked as a summer intern at Comedy Central on shows including The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.[15][18][5] During her senior year of college, she interned as a writer for The Onion and took improv classes at iO Theater.[19] At The Onion she worked in video, research, and contributing features.[20] From 2015 to 2020, she wrote for publications including The Riveter Magazine; Reductress; The Daily Dot;[21] Into The Gloss, where she wrote a column called "Operation Goo Goo Gah Gah";[22] Vulture, where she wrote television recaps;[23] and The New Yorker.
After graduation, she worked at Lorne Michaels's Above Average Productions.[10] Her first television job was as a screenwriter on The Rundown with Robin Thede.[5][18][19]
2017–2020: Baited with Ziwe and Desus & Mero
In 2017, Fumudoh created Baited with Ziwe, a show on YouTube that featured her "baiting" her white friends into making unwitting racial faux pas.[5] In an interview, Fumudoh later said "I love that Baited allows viewers to laugh about race while still acknowledging its complexity. Of all projects I worked on, it's definitely one of my favorites."[24] In the same interview, she said that she got the inspiration for the show from asking her Caucasian coworkers what questions they would be uncomfortable to answer on camera.[24]
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Fumudoh moved the show from YouTube to Instagram Live with weekly celebrity guests including Caroline Calloway, Alison Roman, Alyssa Milano, and Rose McGowan.[25][26] She stated that her show's goals were to facilitate discussions about race while entertaining people and critiquing the system.[6][27][28]
In 2018, Fumudoh appeared frequently in Pop Show, a live show she created at Brooklyn's Union Hall in which she performs original pop songs.[18][29][30] That same year, Fumudoh co-hosted Hysteria, a podcast from Crooked Media.[6]
From 2018 to 2020, Fumudoh was a writer on the TV show Desus and Mero.[31][32] A Forbes reviewer wrote that she had the "confidence of an old comedy pro".[18] During that time, Fumudoh joined the cast of Our Cartoon President as the voice of Kamala Harris. She also wrote the season 3 episode "Senate Control".[33]
2020–2021: Ziwe
In October 2020, the first season of Ziwe, Fumudoh's variety show on Showtime, was announced.[34] Its six episodes featured sketches, musical numbers, and interviews with celebrity guests including Fran Lebowitz, Bowen Yang, Phoebe Bridgers, Julio Torres, and Stacey Abrams.[35] Fumudoh served as host, writer, and producer, and she worked with costume designer Pamela Shepard-Hill on clothing.[36][7]
Season 2 of Ziwe built upon the successful format of Season 1, with 12 episodes featuring.[35] Celebrity guests included: Ilana Glazer, Mia Khalifa, Emily Ratajkowski, Katya Zamolodchikova, Julia Fox, Bob the Drag Queen, Joel Kim Booster, Amber Riley, Michael Che, and Hannibal Burress, among others.[35][37] Clips of the show were popular on TikTok, achieving Fumudoh's dream of becoming "The Ellen Degeneres of race relations."[3] In April 2023, Showtime announced it would not renew the series.[38][39]
Additional projects
In 2021, Fumudoh wrote for the television series Dickinson and appeared in two episodes as Sojourner Truth.[40] That same year, she played Sophie Iwobi, a comedic commentator on a late-night show resembling Ziwe, in one episode of the third season of Succession. The character was tailored to more closely resemble Fumudoh after she was cast.[41]
2022–present
In September 2023, Fumudoh was part of the "My Wings, My Way" campaign for Victoria's Secret.[42]
In August 2020, Fumudoh's upcoming collection of humorous essays was announced. Initially set to be titled The Book of Ziwe, the book was published by Abrams on October 24, 2023 with the title Black Friend.[43][9] Fumudoh made eight book tour stops across the US.[44]
On December 18, 2023, Fumudoh interviewed the scandal-plagued former U.S. House representative George Santos on her YouTube channel.[45] The interview was widely covered in political news outlets and entertainment columns.[46][47][48][49]
Fumudoh has cited Jonathan Swift and Stephen Colbert as influences, having been introduced to them by a teacher during her freshman year of high school.[50] Naming the latter as a foundational reference, she has said of his appearance at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner, "It was so unbelievable that he’d speak to authority or even around authority like that... I was really compelled by his satire."[51] She has also taken inspiration from Oprah, the works of Zach Galifianakis, and Nathan Fielder,[51] as well as from shows like Arrested Development, The Office, and 30 Rock.[52]
Fumudoh lives in New York City.[9]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017–2018 | The Rundown with Robin Thede | None | Writer (7 episodes) |
| 2018–2020 | Desus & Mero | None | Writer (66 episodes) |
| 2019–2020 | Our Cartoon President | Kamala Harris, various characters (voice) | 11 episodes; also writer |
| 2020–2021 | Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out The News | Various voices | 12 episodes |
| 2021–2022 | Ziwe | Herself (host) | Also producer, creator, and writer |
| 2021 | Succession | Sophie Iwobi | Episode: "The Disruption" |
| Dickinson | Sojourner Truth | 2 episodes, also writer | |
| 2021–2023 | The Great North | Amelia (voice) | 9 episodes |
| 2022 | That Damn Michael Che | Herself | Episode: "Black Mediocrity" |
| Central Park | (voice) | Episode: "The Puffs Go Poof" | |
| 2023 | Teenage Euthanasia | Various voices | 2 episodes |
| 2024 | Shell | Audrey |
- 2020: Generation Ziwe (EP)[19]
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