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Ziwe Is Getting Her Own Show—and It Premieres in May

Photo credit: Tyler Joe
Photo credit: Tyler Joe

From Harper's BAZAAR

Ziwe Fumudoh is going from IG to TV. The Desus & Mero writer and comedian, who experienced a meteoric rise during quarantine for her online interview series, Baited, is getting her own show on Showtime. She'll star in and executive-produce Ziwe, which will feature interviews, sketches, and "unscripted real-world rendezvous between everyday people," Deadline reported. Here's everything else to know.

The show is due out in May.

Ziwe, a six-episode series, will premiere on Showtime on Sunday, May 9, the network announced during the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour.

The program will feature interviews, musical numbers, guest stars, sketches, unscripted interactions with everyday people, and more, Showtime announced, per IndieWire. The titular star will serve as host and showrunner.

Ziwe's popularity rose during quarantine.

Now a mononymic celebrity, Ziwe began Baited on YouTube in 2016, but it surged in popularity in 2020 on Instagram Live with audiences in quarantine and the Black Lives Matter movement bringing discussions about racism to the fore. Though she's interviewed pop culture figures like playwright Jeremy O. Harris and art curator Kimberly Drew, she's garnered the most buzz—and cringeworthy reactions—for disastrous virtual sit-downs with problematic guests like influencer Caroline Calloway, cook and writer Alison Roman, and actresses Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan.

With questions like, "What was the last racist thing that you did today?" and "How many Black friends do you have?" the conversations are bound to make you squirm—precisely why the Internet was hooked. She's even tried to get controversial celebrities like J.K. Rowling, Lea Michele, the band Lady A (formerly Lady Antebellum), and Kellyanne Conway's husband, George Conway, on the show. They've yet to accept.

"I love what I do. There's not a version of me that's doing anything else. That's just a fact. I replenish myself by continuing to do what I love," Ziwe told BAZAAR.com in September. "Making art is the only thing that makes me feel like my purpose on Earth is fulfilled."

Fumudoh has also written for Our Cartoon President and Apple TV+'s Dickinson. Further, she's penning a collection of essays, titled The Book of Ziwe, due out in January 2022.

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