Michelle Buteau (born July 24, 1977) is an American

stand-up comedian Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage and delivers humorous and satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical acts. These performances are typically composed of rehear ...

, actress,

television host A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces or hosts television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. It is common for people who garnered fam ...

, producer, and

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

host.

Early life

Buteau was born in New Jersey to a Haitian father and a

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

n mother. She attended college at

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in Westchester, Florida, United States. Founded in 1965 by the Florida Legislature, the school opened to students in 1972. FIU is the third-largest univ ...

, where she pursued her dream of becoming an entertainment reporter and studied television production.

Career

After college, Buteau worked as a local TV news producer in New York City, often working the overnight shift. Her co-workers found her funny and suggested that she do standup comedy. It wasn’t until three days after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

in 2001 that Buteau finally performed comedy for the first time, having burned out on covering the news. After five years as a stand-up comedian, Buteau landed her first television spot on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

. In 2017, Buteau was listed as one of ten comedians to watch by ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...

''. In 2018, Buteau started hosting the ''Late Night Whenever!'' podcast, which was labeled as "one of the best podcasts of 2018 so far" by ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

''. Buteau was also part of ''The Comedy Lineup'' on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

where up and coming comedians have 15 minute stand-up sets. In 2019, Buteau appeared in the movies: ''Someone Great'', ''

Isn't It Romantic Isn't It Romantic may refer to: *"Isn't It Romantic?", a 1932 song by Rodgers and Hart *Isn't It Romantic? (1948 film), ''Isn't It Romantic?'' (1948 film), a musical starring Veronica Lake and Billy De Wolfe *Isn't It Romantic (2019 film), ''Isn't ...

'', ''Sell By'', and ''

Always Be My Maybe ''Always Be My Maybe'' is a 2019 American romantic comedy film, written by Ali Wong, Randall Park and Michael Golamco and directed by Nahnatchka Khan. It stars Park and Wong as childhood friends Marcus and Sasha, who have not been in touch si ...

''. She also began hosting the

WNYC WNYC is an audio service brand, under the control of New York Public Radio, a non-profit organization. Radio and other audio programming is primarily provided by a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations: WNYC (AM) and WNYC- ...

podcast, ''Adulting'', with co-host

Jordan Carlos Jordan Carlos (born February 2, 1978) is an American stand-up comedian who played a recurring character on ''The Colbert Report'' and is a co-host on the Nickelodeon kids' show '' Me TV''. He also appeared as a panelist and reporter on '' The Nigh ...

. That same year, Buteau appeared in two television series: '' First Wives Club'' and ''

Tales of the City ''Tales of the City'' is a series of ten novels written by American author Armistead Maupin from 1978 to 2024, depicting the life of a group of friends in San Francisco, many of whom are LGBTQ. The stories from ''Tales'' were originally seri ...

''. In 2020, Buteau started hosting '' The Circle'', a reality TV show on Netflix. In 2020, Buteau published her first book, a collection of personal essays titled ''Survival of the Thickest'', with Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. A TV adaptation of the memoir premiered in 2023 on Netflix. Buteau's ''Michelle Buteau: Welcome to Buteaupia'' won a 2021

Critics' Choice Television Award The Critics' Choice Television Awards were accolades that were presented annually by the Critics Choice Association (CCA). They were established in 2011, and the first ceremony was held on June 20, 2011, and streamed live on VH1.com. The fou ...

for Best Comedy Special. Buteau was cast with a prominent role in the 2024 film '' Babes'' directed by

Pamela Adlon Pamela Adlon ( ; ; born July 9, 1966) is an American-British actress. She is known for voicing Bobby Hill in the animated comedy series ''King of the Hill'' (1997–2010), for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award. She also voiced Baloo in '' Ju ...

. Buteau played the role of Dawn, the main character's best friend. Buteau starred in the animated film ''

Fixed Fixed may refer to: * ''Fixed'' (EP), EP by Nine Inch Nails * ''Fixed'' (film), an upcoming animated film directed by Genndy Tartakovsky * Fixed (typeface), a collection of monospace bitmap fonts that is distributed with the X Window System * Fi ...

''.

Personal life

Buteau married Dutch photographer Gijs van der Most in 2010. Buteau and van der Most have twins who were born in January 2019 via

surrogacy Surrogacy is an arrangement whereby a woman gets pregnant and gives birth on behalf of another person or couple who will become the child's legal parents after birth. People pursue surrogacy for a variety of reasons such as infertility, danger ...

. She is

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Buteau, Michelle 1977 births Living people 21st-century American actresses 21st-century American comedians 21st-century Roman Catholics Actresses from New Jersey African-American Catholics African-American female comedians American actors of Jamaican descent American comedy podcasters American film actresses American people of French descent American people of Haitian descent American people of Lebanese descent American Roman Catholics American stand-up comedians American television actresses American women comedians American women podcasters Catholics from New Jersey Comedians from New Jersey Women stand-up comedians