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Discovering Ziwe Fumudoh and her weekly Instagram Live shows was one of the best things to happen to me in quarantine. The New York-based comedian went viral during lockdown for her Instagram Live series, Baited, on which she’d enlist celebrities, friends and pop culture figures to get on a video call with her to discuss race in the most straight-shooting, awkward and, oftentimes, incredibly cringe-worthy way.
Ziwe actually began Baited on YouTube in 2016, but in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement she moved to Instagram Live, convincing the likes of Alyssa Milano, Rose McGowan, Caroline Calloway and Alison Roman to answer questions such as, “How many Black friends do you have?”, “Did your family own slaves?” and “What’s your favourite thing about Black people?”
Most of the guests fumble their way through Ziwe’s questions, as she frowns at the screen and moves her face into the camera to stare them down, and thousands live comment hilarious responses to the conversation. But hilarity aside, Ziwe’s show is hard to watch for a reason: because it shows how far we still have to go with anti-racism education.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEXZFF7Jr1A/
Following her past few months of major success, including features in the New York Times, New York Magazine, Vulture and Allure, it’s just been announced that Ziwe is getting her own TV show.
The comedian will star in and executive-produce the as-yet-untitled project for Showtime, which will feature interviews, sketches, and “unscripted real-world rendezvous between everyday people,” Deadline reports.
There’s no release date as of yet, but in the meantime, check out Ziwe’s back catalogue of interviews here.
