Early life and education
Born February 27, 1992, Fumudoh grew up in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the second of three children to Nigerian immigrant parents. [3] [10] [11] [12]
Fumudoh graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts in 2010 and attended Northwestern University. [13]
While an undergraduate at Northwestern University, Fumudoh wrote for student publications including Purp Magazine, Northwestern Sketch Television, and Project SOARD. [14] [13] In 2014, Fumudoh graduated with a double major in radio, television, & film and African American studies; and a minor in creative writing with a concentration in poetry. [1] [15] [3] [16] [17]
Career
2017–2020: Baited with Ziwe and Desus & Mero
In 2017, Fumudoh created Baited with Ziwe, [24] 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." [25] In the same interview, she said that she got the inspiration for the show from asking her white coworkers what questions they would be uncomfortable to answer on camera. [25]
In 2018, Fumudoh appeared frequently in Pop Show, a live show she created at Brooklyn's Union Hall in which she performed original pop songs. [18] [26] [27] That same year, she co-hosted Hysteria, a podcast from Crooked Media. [6]
From 2018 to 2020, Fumudoh was a writer on the TV show Desus and Mero . [28] [29] 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". [30]
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. [31] [32] She stated that her show's goals were to facilitate discussions about race while entertaining people and critiquing the system. [6] [33] [34] Guests were asked to participated in games that illuminated societal discomforts surrounding race, one of which was titled “Enslave, Appropriate, Silence,” a take on “F**k, Marry, Kill”. [35]
2020–2021: Ziwe on Showtime
Season 1:
In October 2020, the first season of Ziwe , Fumudoh's variety show on Showtime, was announced. [36]
The first six-episode season launched in May and ran through June 13. [37] Its six episodes featured sketches, musical numbers, and interviews with celebrity guests including Fran Lebowitz, Bowen Yang, Phoebe Bridgers, Julio Torres, and Stacey Abrams. [38] Fumudoh served as host, writer, and producer, and she worked with costume designer Pamela Shepard-Hill. [39] [7]
Critical Reception: Unlike late night comedy shows that shy away from challenging topics or awkward dialogue, Ziwe intentionally turned the format on its head by asking intentionally provocative questions that brought to light social and political issues. [40] Critics applauded the refreshing twist, especially highlighting the one-on-one interviews, particularly when the guests were able to laugh at their own expense or fully sidestep the 'gotcha' interview questions by countering with questions of their own. [41] However, some members of the critical community felt the show fell short in its attempted expansion to sketches beyond the gotcha style interviews. [35]
Season 2:
In June of 2021, Showtime announced a confident renewal of Ziwe by ordering 12 episodes in Season 2, doubling the initial 6 episodes of Season 1. [42]
Season 2 debuted on November 18, 2022. [43] The show's formula largely remained the same with one-on-one interviews centered on gotcha style questions, though the guest list expanded in size and scope with celebrities popular among women, the LGBTQ+ community, and the Black community.
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. [38] [44] Clips of the show went viral on TikTok, securing Fumudoh's place in the Gen Z cultural zeitgeist while also achieving Fumudoh's dream of becoming "The Ellen Degeneres of race relations." [3]
Cancellation:
In April 2023, three months after the Season 2 finale aired, Showtime announced it would not renew the series following a change of network leadership. [45] [46] Critics lamented the loss of the only late night style comedy show hosted by a Black woman, particularly in the wake of Comedy Central's cancellation of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee in July of 2022. [47] [48] [49]
2023 – Present: Ziwe returns to YouTube
In the latest evolution of the series, Fumudoh transitioned her popular interview series from Showtime back to YouTube, where the series remains as of writing. As of January of 2026, Fumudoh has more than 450K subscribers and regularly receives between 1 and 2.5 million views per interview. [50] Her viral interview clips continue to define contemporary online pop culture.
On December 18, 2023, Fumudoh interviewed the hubristic, scandal-plagued former U.S. House representative George Santos on her YouTube show comedically titled Ziwe News Network (ZNN). [51] The interview was widely covered in political news outlets and entertainment columns. [52] [53] [54] [55]
On November 6, 2025, Fumudoh interviewed New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The interview received significant news coverage for Adams' bizarre behavior. [56] [57]
Other guests include: comedian Caleb Hearon, singer and lesbian icon Reneé Rapp, drag queen superstar Jinkx Monsoon, SNL cast member Devon Walker, comedian Kevin Hart, rapper Vince Staples, and actor Adam Pally. [50]
Additional projects: 'Black Friend,' 'Dickinson,' and 'Succession'.
'Black Friend, a novel by Ziwe Fumudoh: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.' [58] [9] Fumudoh made eight book tour stops across the US, effectively doubling the trip as an impromptu stand up comedy set. [59]
Other television projects: In 2021, Fumudoh wrote for the television series Dickinson and appeared in two episodes as Sojourner Truth. [60] 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. [61]
In September 2023, Fumudoh was part of the "My Wings, My Way" campaign for Victoria's Secret. [62]
