Amber Ruffin

Amber Mildred Ruffin (born January 9, 1979) is an American comedian, writer and actress. She hosted her own late-night talk show titled '' The Amber Ruffin Show'' on Peacock. She has been a writer for ''Late Night with Seth Meyers'' since 2014. When she joined the show she became the first Black woman to write for a late-night network talk show in the United States.

In January 2021, she co-authored a book with her sister Lacey Lamar titled ''You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism'', which made the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list. They released a second book, ''The World Record Book of Racist Stories'', in 2022. In 2022, Ruffin and her writing partner Jenny Hagel co-founded their production company Straight to Cards under their overall deal with Universal Television.

Early life and education

Ruffin was born in Omaha, Nebraska. She graduated from Benson High School in 1996. Ruffin is the youngest of five children. As a child Ruffin learned Signing Exact English to communicate with a deaf neighbor.

Career

In 2001, Ruffin began performing in local theater productions and improv in Omaha. While performing with her improv troupe at an event in Chicago, Ruffin met comedian and owner of iO Theater Charna Halpern. Halpern encouraged Ruffin to move to Chicago saying she believed Ruffin would "have a full-time job, doing comedy, within the year". In 2008 after finishing her classes at iO, Ruffin moved to Amsterdam to work as a writer and performer on the improv comedy troupe Boom Chicago Amsterdam.

After returning to the United States, Ruffin performed as part of The Second City in both Denver and Chicago, where she first met future ''Late Night'' co-writer Jenny Hagel. In 2011, she moved to Los Angeles; joined the YouTube comedy group ''RobotDown'' featuring Jessica Lowe, Carlo Corbellini, and Davey Vorhes; and appeared on an episode of '' Key & Peele''. She also joined the nationally recognized sketch and musical comedy troupe Story Pirates, where she performed sketches based on stories written by kids. Ruffin was also a member of Sacred Fools Theater Company performing a serialized version of ''King of Kong: A Musical Parody'', a two-woman show parodying the documentary '' The King of Kong''. The musical was co-written with co-star Lauren Van Kurin and directed by fellow Boom Chicago alum Brendan Hunt, with music by David Schmoll. ''King of Kong'' appeared at the 2014 New York International Fringe Festival winning Best Overall Musical 2014, and the 2015 Hollywood Fringe Festival (with Hunt subbing for an unavailable Ruffin), where it won Best Musical & Outstanding Songwriting. The show returned to Sacred Fools in September 2016 for a performance attended by parody target Billy Mitchell himself.

In 2013, ''Saturday Night Live'' received backlash for not having any Black women on the cast. Ruffin auditioned for the show in 2014 alongside Tiffany Haddish, Leslie Jones, Gabrielle Dennis, Nicole Byer, Simone Shepherd, and Bresha Webb. Ruffin was unsuccessful in her audition. A few days later Seth Meyers called to ask her to be a writer on his new late night show. Ruffin has been a writer on ''Late Night with Seth Meyers'' since the show's start in 2014. In addition to writing she also appears in several recurring segments on the program including: "Amber Says What?", "Amber's Minute of Fury", "Jokes Seth Can't Tell" (with fellow writer Jenny Hagel), and "Point, Counterpoint". When the George Floyd protests began, Ruffin opened a week's worth of shows by retelling her experiences with police officers and police brutality. Meyers interviewed Ruffin as a guest for the show's 1,000th episode.

When not writing for ''Late Night'', Ruffin wrote for the Comedy Central show '' Detroiters'' and was a regular narrator on the Comedy Central show '' Drunk History''. In 2017, Ruffin developed a single-camera comedy show, ''Going Dutch'', but the series was not ordered. She was nominated for a Writers Guild of America award in the category "Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) Series" in 2017.

In February 2018, Ruffin hosted the 70th Writers Guild of America awards ceremony.

In 2019, NBC ordered a pilot presentation for Ruffin's single-camera comedy series ''Village Gazette''. In the same year Ruffin was a writer for the first season of '' A Black Lady Sketch Show'' on HBO.

On September 25, 2020 Ruffin's late-night talk show, '' The Amber Ruffin Show'', premiered on NBC's streaming service Peacock. The show broke away from the typical late night structure, foregoing guests and focusing instead on topical sketches. The show was nominated for a Writers Guild of America award in the category "Comedy/Variety Sketch Series" in 2021. The show was also nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards.

Ruffin and her sister Lacey Lamar co-authored a book, titled ''You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism'', which was released on January 12, 2021, and was placed on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list.

In February 2021, it was announced that Ruffin was set to co-write the Broadway-bound musical adaptation of ''Some Like It Hot'' alongside Matthew Lopez. She received a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical nomination for the show.

In September 2022, it was revealed that Ruffin would be the voice actor of Purple, the new spokescandy for M&M's.

In February 2025, the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) board announced that Ruffin would be the featured entertainment for the White House Correspondents' Dinner on April 26. On March 29, WHCA board president Eugene Daniels announced that the board had decided to cancel her performance, "to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division". Ruffin's planned appearance had been criticized by White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich, who labeled the WHCA's cancellation of Ruffin's performance as a "cop-out" and described her as "hate-filled". Commenting on her cancellation, Ruffin said, "I thought when people take away your rights, erase your history and deport your friends, you’re supposed to call it out. But I was wrong."

Personal life

Ruffin was married to Dutch artist Jan Schiltmeijer from 2010 until their divorce in 2023. On the last day of 2024's Pride Month, she came out as queer on Instagram showing a photo of herself wearing a shirt saying "QUEER."

Filmography

Television

Podcasts

Bibliography

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Honors

*2018: ''Crain's New York Business'', 40 Under 40
*2021: ''New York Times'' Best Seller, Hardcover Nonfiction
*2021: ''Time''100 Next

See also

* New Yorkers in journalism

References

External links

''The Amber Ruffin Show''
on Peacock
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruffin, Amber
1979 births
20th-century African-American people
20th-century African-American women
20th-century American LGBTQ people
21st-century African-American women writers
21st-century African-American writers
21st-century American comedians
21st-century American LGBTQ people
21st-century American screenwriters
21st-century American women writers
African-American female comedians
African-American comedians
African-American LGBTQ people
African-American screenwriters
African-American television writers
African-American television talk show hosts
American comedy writers
American expatriates in the Netherlands
American LGBTQ comedians
American television talk show hosts
American television writers
American women comedians
American women television writers
Comedians from Nebraska
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Late night television talk show hosts
LGBTQ people from Nebraska
Living people
Screenwriters from Nebraska
Writers from Omaha, Nebraska
American queer actresses
Queer comedians