Ziwe Fumudoh

Ziwerekoru "Ziwe" Fumudoh is an American comedian and writer known for her satirical commentary on politics, race relations, and young adulthood.

In 2017, she created the YouTube comedy show Baited with Ziwe and its 2020 Instagram Live iteration. She wrote for Desus & Mero from 2018 to 2020, and she co-hosted Crooked Media's Hysteria podcast in 2018.

Fumudoh starred in and executive produced the Showtime variety series Ziwe (2021–2022). She published a collection of essays called Black Friend in October 2023.

Early life and education
Born February 27, 1992, Fumudoh grew up in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the second of three children to parents who emigrated from Nigeria.

In 2010, Fumudoh graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. In 2014, she graduated from Northwestern University with a double major in radio, television, and film and African American studies, with a minor in creative writing: poetry. On her first year at Northwestern, Fumudoh lived in McCulloch Hall. While an undergraduate, she wrote for many student publications including: Purp Magazine, Northwestern Sketch Television, and Project SOARD.

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. During her senior year of college, she interned as a writer for The Onion and took improv classes at the iO theater. At The Onion she worked in video, research, and contributing features. From 2015 to 2020, she wrote for publications including The Riveter Magazine; Reductress; The Daily Dot; Into The Gloss, where she wrote a column called "Operation Goo Goo Gah Gah"; Vulture, where she wrote television recaps; and The New Yorker.

After graduation, she worked at Lorne Michaels's Above Average Productions. Her first television job was as a screenwriter on The Rundown with Robin Thede.

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. 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." 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.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Fumudoh moved the show from YouTube to Instagram Live with new celebrity guests each week. Guests included Caroline Calloway, Alison Roman, Alyssa Milano, and Rose McGowan. She stated that her show's goals were to facilitate discussions about race while entertaining people and critiquing the system. Baited with Ziwe would serve as a successful template for her talk show Ziwe.

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. That same year, Fumudoh co-hosted Hysteria, a podcast from Crooked Media.

From 2018 to 2020, Fumudoh was a writer on the TV show Desus and Mero. A Forbes reviewer wrote that she had the "confidence of an old comedy pro". 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".

2020–2021: Ziwe
In October 2020, it was announced that Fumudoh would work with Showtime on a new variety show, Ziwe. The first season had six episodes and featured sketches, musical numbers, and interviews with celebrity guests including: Fran Libowitz, Bowen Yang, Phoebe Bridgers, Julio Torres, and Stacey Abrams. Fumudoh hosted, wrote for, and produced the show. Fumudoh collaborated with costume designer Pamela Shepard-Hill on her costumes.

The second season was heavily teased prior to broadcast by mainstream publications including: Variety, Forbes, and Deadline. Season 2 of Ziwe built upon the successful format of Season 1, expanding to 12 episodes. 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. The hyper virality of clips from Season 2 of Ziwe on TikTok cemented Fumudoh in the cultural zeitgeist of Millennials and Gen Z, achieving Fumudoh's dream of becoming "The Ellen Degeneres of race relations." In April 2023, Showtime chose not to renew the series for a third season. In doing so, Showtime left the late-night talk show genre altogether.

Additional projects
In 2021, Fumudoh wrote for the television series Dickinson and appeared in two episodes as Sojourner Truth. 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.

2022–present
In September 2023, Fumudoh was part of the "My Wings, My Way" campaign for Victoria's Secret.

In August 2020, it was announced that Fumudoh was writing a collection of humorous essays, The Book of Ziwe, for Abrams Books. The book was later retitled Black Friend and was released on October 24, 2023. To promote the book, Fumudoh went on a cross country tour between October 23 and November 8, 2023, visiting 8 cities, including: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C.

On December 18, 2023, Fumudoh interviewed the scandal-plagued former U.S. House representative George Santos on her YouTube channel. The interview, laden with Fumudoh's trademark gotcha! style, was widely covered in political news outlets and Hollywood Entertainment columns alike, including: New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, CBS News, The Hill, Mother Jones, LA Times, Axios, Variety, The Daily Beast, Buzzfeed, Business Insider, The Advocate, among others.

Influences
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. 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." She has also taken inspiration from Oprah, the works of Zach Galifianakis, and Nathan Fielder, as well as from shows like Arrested Development, The Office, and 30 Rock.

Personal life
Fumudoh lives in New York City.

Discography

 * 2020: Generation Ziwe (EP)