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Whitney Cummings
American comedian and actress

Whitney Cummings

The basics

Quick Facts

Intro
American comedian and actress
Gender
Female
Religion(s):
Place of birth
Washington, D.C., District of Columbia, USA
Age
42 years
Education
Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, USA
St. Andrew's Episcopal School
Montgomery County, Maryland, USA
The details (from wikipedia)

Biography

Cummings in a 2019 interview

Whitney Cummings (born September 4, 1982) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, writer, producer, director, and podcaster.

Early life

Cummings was born on September 4, 1982, in Washington, D.C., to Patti Cummings (née Cumming), a native of Texas and a public relations director of Neiman Marcus at Mazza Gallerie; and Eric Lynn Cummings, a lawyer and venture capitalist from West Virginia. She has an older half-brother named Kevin and an older sister named Ashley. Cummings was raised Roman Catholic. Her parents divorced when she was five years old.

She has stated that she was raised in a dysfunctional, alcoholic household. At age 12, she temporarily resided with her aunt in Virginia, and spent summers in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, where her father worked as a manager at the Hill Top House Hotel. Cummings attended St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland, graduating in 2000. During high school, she interned at Washington's NBC-owned television station WRC-TV. She studied acting at Washington, D.C.'s Studio Theater.

After high school, Cummings enrolled at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. During this time, she worked as a department store model at local shopping malls. She graduated magna cum laude in 2004 with a degree in Communications, and initially aspired to a career as a journalist.

Career

2004–2010: Beginnings

Cummings moved to Los Angeles after college and worked on Punk'd on MTV in 2004. That same year, she starred in the low-budget thriller EMR, which was screened at Cannes. Cummings began performing stand-up in 2004. In 2007, Variety named her one of 10 Comics to Watch in 2007. In 2008, she appeared in the San Francisco audition for Last Comic Standing, although she did not pass the showcase.

She co-starred on The Tony Rock Project and appeared in the 2008 romantic comedy Made of Honor. Beginning in 2007, Cummings appeared as a regular roundtable guest on the E! series Chelsea Lately, and continued to appear until its conclusion in 2014. In 2008, she was named one of 12 Rising Stars of Comedy by Entertainment Weekly. She subsequently appeared as a comedy roaster in the Comedy Central Roasts of Joan Rivers (2009), David Hasselhoff (2010), and Donald Trump (2011).

In August 2010, her first one-hour special, titled Whitney Cummings: Money Shot, premiered on Comedy Central. In 2010, Cummings went on tour with Denis Leary and the Rescue Me Comedy Tour to promote the show's sixth season. She also appeared with Leary on Douchebags and Donuts.

2011–present: Television projects and specials, book

Whitney Cummings
Whitney Cummings performing live in 2016.

In 2011, two multi-camera, live-audience sitcoms that Cummings created were picked up by broadcast networks: 2 Broke Girls (which she co-created and executive produced with Michael Patrick King) and Whitney (which she starred in, executive produced, and created). Whitney, in which Cummings portrayed a semi-fictionalized version of herself, was not well received by critics, and Cummings acknowledges it was a learning curve for her. The series was canceled after two seasons in May 2013. While still working on the second season of Whitney, Cummings also hosted a talk show, Love You, Mean It with Whitney Cummings, on E! in 2012, which was cancelled after 11 episodes.

Cummings later stated that she was overworking herself during this period, and was also in the midst of battling an eating disorder in which she would binge eat followed by compulsive exercise. In June 2014, Cummings released her second hour-long special, I Love You, on Comedy Central.

Her third hour-long special debuted on HBO in 2016, titled "I'm Your Girlfriend". Reviews were mixed, suggesting it felt less comedic than her previous stand up performances.

Cummings had a supporting role in the 2017 thriller Unforgettable, starring Katherine Heigl and Rosario Dawson, released in April 2017. The following month, 2 Broke Girls was cancelled after having run six consecutive seasons. Cummings made her directorial debut with The Female Brain (2017), an independent comedy film distributed by IFC Films, which Cummings also starred in.

Also in 2017, Cummings published her first book, titled I'm Fine...And Other Lies, a collection of personal stories about her life.

Beginning in 2018, Cummings served as one of the head writers, an executive producer, and overseer of day-to-day production of the revival of the comedy series Roseanne, for ABC. Cummings left the show before its cancelation.

Her fourth hour-long special, Can I Touch It?, was released on July 30, 2019, on Netflix. This special features a robot that Cummings had custom made to look exactly like her, and she brings this robot out at the end of the special.

On November 5, 2019, Cummings launched her first podcast entitled Good for You. Her first guest was actor/producer Dan Levy. Good for You is co-hosted by former assistant and fellow comedian Benton Ray, and features a wide variety of guests, ranging from politicians and comedians to actors and journalists. Fans of the show appreciate Cumming's regular guests, including Nikki Glaser who has featured in multiple episodes, creating the impression of a "highly relatable friendship."

In September 2023, Cummings claimed that she was owed over $350,000 by podcast network Kast Media, who Cummings had been working with since December 2021. Similar claims of non-payment had been made against Kast Media and its CEO Colin Thomson by Jim Cornette followed by Theo Von, Jason Ellis, Brendan Schaub, Bryan Callen, and Alyx Weiss, who stated they were owed significant money, including several six-figure and seven-figure shortages.

Cummings has a chapter giving advice in Tim Ferriss' book Tools of Titans.

Personal life

In June 2023, Cummings revealed that she was pregnant and expecting a son. She gave birth to her son on December 17, 2023.

Influences

Cummings has described her comedic influences beginning with Paul Reiser, who she said "made these hysterical, brilliant commentary about the most mundane things and open it up to a hysterical world". Other important influences for her were George Carlin, who she says challenged her to "question everything". Later influences were Dave Attell ("a legend now but he's very edgy"), Lenny Bruce, and Bill Hicks.

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRoleNotesRef.
2004EMRCyberBunnyLilly
2006HookedVanessaShort film
2006Life is ShortNatalieShort film
2007Come to the NetWhitneyShort film
20077–10 SplitWhitney the Waitress
2008Grizzly ParkTiffany Stone
2008Made of HonorStephanie
2009Why Men Go Gay in L.A.Sarah
2010In FidelityCindyShort film
2010Successful AlcoholicsShort film
20123,2,1... Frankie Go BoomClaudia
2015The Wedding RingerHolly Munk
2015The Ridiculous 6Susannah
2017UnforgettableAli
2017The Female BrainJulia BrizendineAlso writer and director
2020The Opening ActBrooke Bailey
2021Tacoma FDCourtney
2021How It EndsMandy
2022Studio 666Samantha
2022Good MourningMaxine

Television

YearTitleRoleNotesRef.
2005Half and HalfWoman1 episode
2006Fire GuysPonytails Pi1 episode
2006Trapped in TV GuideSeries regularUnknown episodes
2006What About BrianSally1 episode
2007Tell Me You Love MeLouise3 episodes
2008Turbo DatesSandy1 episode
2008–2009The Tony Rock ProjectSketch Performer4 episodes
2009HouseCourtneyEpisode: "Here Kitty"
2011–2013WhitneyWhitney38 episodes, also creator, writer, and executive producer
2011–20172 Broke Girls138 episodes, creator, writer, and executive producer
2011Dave's Old PornGuest host1 episode
2012–2013Love You, Mean ItHost11 episodes, also executive producer
2014Comedy Bang! Bang!Herself1 episode
2015MaronHerself2 episodes
2015The Jim Gaffigan ShowHerself1 episode
2015–2016UndateableCharlotte5 episodes
2016WorkaholicsJuliette1 episode
2018CrashingHerself1 episode
2018–2019Funny You Should AskHerself13 episodes
2021The Masked DancerHerself (guest panelist)1 episode
2021The Wendy Williams ShowHerselfGuest host
2022Conjuring KeshaHerselfEpisode: "Not today, Satan"
2023AccusedBrendaEpisode: "Brenda's Story"

Comedy specials

YearTitleNotesRef.
2010Money ShotPremiered on Comedy Central
2014I Love You
2016I'm Your GirlfriendPremiered on HBO
2019Can I Touch It?Premiered on Netflix
2022Jokes
2023Roast of Whitney CummingsOnly Fans TV
2023MouthyOnly Fans TV

Bibliography

  • I'm Fine... And Other Lies. New York: Penguin. 2017. ISBN 978-0-735-21262-6.
The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
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