Saluting The #BlackGirlMagic Of Late-Night
For far too long, a black woman’s voice has been absent in the late-night television world. However, some major strides have been made in recent years, and while more progress…
LAS VEGAS, NV – NOVEMBER 05: Robin Thede attends the 2017 Soul Train Awards, presented by BET, at the Orleans Arena on November 5, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada; NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 13: Comedian Amber Ruffin attends as ELLE hosts Women In Comedy event with July Cover Star Kate McKinnon at Public Arts on June 13, 2017 in New York City; HOLLYWOOD, CA – SEPTEMBER 09: Comedian Ashley Nicole Black attends Comedy Central’s Emmy Party at Boulevard3 on September 9, 2017 in Hollywood, California.
Paras Griffin/Getty Images; Brad Barket/Getty ImagesTommaso Boddi/Getty ImagesFor far too long, a black woman’s voice has been absent in the late-night television world. However, some major strides have been made in recent years, and while more progress needs to be made, these three women are leading the way in #BlackGirlMagic in the late-night landscape.
Robin Thede
Thede was head writer on The Queen Latifah Show and the taken-from-us-too-soon The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore. She’s now hosting BET’s The Rundown with Robin Thede, and if her show isn’t already part of your late-night diet, change your habits right now! Her rundown on the week in news is informative AND hilarious. Plus, she peppers in brilliant spoofs like this trailer for “On The Edge Of Glory.”
Side note: This was her promo for her first season. Seriously…if this and the video above doesn’t make you want to tune in to The Rundown, we don’t know what will!
Amber Ruffin
Here’s a mind-blowing statistic: In 2014, Ruffin became the first black woman to write for a network late night talk show when she joined the writing staff for NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers. While we could take an entire separate post to unpack that factoid, let’s focus on the positive: Ruffin’s presence on Late Night is always a highlight, especially during her hysterical “Amber Says What” segment, which always knocks it out of the park.
Ashley Nicole Black
Black’s story about how she became a writer for TBS’ Full Frontal With Samantha Bee might be one of our favorite show-business stories ever. Black, an alum of The Second City, took to Facebook in August 2015 to point out the recently unveiled writing staff of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert had only two women and no people of color. Naturally, this led to a dialogue on Facebook about the lack of opportunities women of color often have when it comes to comedy writing jobs. A friend saw the online conversation and reached out to her about submitting her work for Full Frontal. After a challenging audition process, she was hired. Why? Because she’s f*cking funny! Watch for yourself!
