With Her New Showtime Series, Ziwe Is One Step Closer to Creating Her Ziwe Cinematic Universe
Danielle Turchiano, provided by
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With her new Showtime variety series, Ziwe Fumudoh, known professionally as just Ziwe, is ready to create her “Ziwe cinematic universe.”
The comedian and author went viral last summer when she hosted an Instagram Live show “from my bedroom.” Not only did she host and interview guests from Alyssa Milano to Alison Roman, but Ziwe was also responsible for the show’s set design, hair and makeup, costume design and talent booking. Then, if she didn’t want to do an episode, she just didn’t do it, because she was only “accountable to myself,” she tells
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On Instagram, Ziwe assumes the role of a cheeky, charming provocateur, interrogating her guests on racial justice and Black history, goading them to share how much they know about Marcus Garvey and Angela Davis. She raises her eyebrows, widens her eyes, and gets claustrophobically close to the camera to ask “How many Black friends do you have?” The ensuing conversations can be both equally fun and fraught to watch, especially when her guests have been recently cancelled. To get to know Ziwe and her trademark cringe humor ahead of
Ziwe’s premiere, here are four of the most essential (and uncomfortable) episodes of her Instagram live show.
too much.
“That was something I was penalized for in school like, I was annoying,” says the comedian in a video chat. “But now it serves a purpose.”
The 29-year-old New Yorker is known for her frank, funny conversations about sensitive issues, especially race. It all began with a YouTube series, “Baited,” where she’d needle her comedian friends by asking humorously uncomfortable questions like, “On a scale of Malcolm to Martin, how much do you hate white people?”
When the pandemic struck, Ziwe, who uses a mononym professionally instead of her full name, Ziwe Fumudoh, and describes herself as “the Cher of alternative comedy,” took to broadcasting celebrity interviews on Instagram Live.
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Ziwe’s always been ahead of her time America just had some catching up to do. The comedian and writer’s been honing her craft for years, cracking jokes on Twitter, performing elaborate pop numbers at live shows, writing for
Desus & Mero, and baiting her friends into some hilarious interviews. But it wasn’t until last summer that the world really started to take notice; in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the wake of nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, Ziwe brought her hilariously frank interview style to Instagram Live, which quickly amassed a loyal viewership. With pop culture pariahs like Caroline Calloway and Alison Roman sitting in the hot seat, her Instagram became the “must-see TV” of quarantine.