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Whitney Cummings

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American actress, comedian and writer (born 1982)

Whitney Cummings
Cummings in 2019
Born (1982-09-04) September 4, 1982 (age 42)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
MediumStand-up, television, film
EducationUniversity of Pennsylvania (BA)
Years active2004–present
Genres
Subject(s)
Children1
Websitewhitneycummings.com
Cummings in a 2019 interview

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

Cummings grew up in a challenging environment marked by her parents' divorce when she was five and being raised in a dysfunctional, alcoholic household. Cummings found direction through her education at St. Andrew's Episcopal School and studies at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 2004.

Her early career was marked by ventures into stand-up comedy, acting, and internships, including one at Washington's NBC-owned television station WRC-TV. Cummings moved to Los Angeles after college, making her mark with a role in the low-budget thriller EMR and her participation in MTV's Punk'd. Her stand-up career took off in the mid-2000s, being named one of 10 Comics to Watch in 2007 by Variety and participation in the Comedy Central Roasts of celebrities.

A significant break in television came with the creation of 2 Broke Girls in 2011, a sitcom she co-created and executive produced, alongside starring in and producing her own sitcom, Whitney. Cummings has continued with comedy specials, roles in films and television, and directing the film The Female Brain.

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 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.

Cummings was the featured guest on the first episode of Talk Tuah on September 10, 2024.

A 2024 New York Times feature about Hannah Berner quoted Cummings as saying that in the past, “for a woman to even be tolerated in comedy, you had to hate yourself.” Cummings added that being "mean for the sake of a joke" is no longer required to succeed, citing Berner as an example of a sunnier comedian.

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

Year Title Role Notes Ref.
2004 EMR CyberBunnyLilly
2006 Hooked Vanessa Short film
2006 Life is Short Natalie Short film
2007 Come to the Net Whitney Short film
2007 7–10 Split Whitney the Waitress
2008 Grizzly Park Tiffany Stone
2008 Made of Honor Stephanie
2009 Why Men Go Gay in L.A. Sarah
2010 In Fidelity Cindy Short film
2010 Successful Alcoholics Short film
2012 3,2,1... Frankie Go Boom Claudia
2015 The Wedding Ringer Holly Munk
2015 The Ridiculous 6 Susannah
2017 Unforgettable Ali
2017 The Female Brain Julia Brizendine Also writer and director
2020 The Opening Act Brooke Bailey
2021 How It Ends Mandy
2022 Studio 666 Samantha
2022 Good Mourning Maxine
2023 At Midnight Margot Cohen

Television

Year Title Role Notes Ref.
2005 Half and Half Woman 1 episode
2006 Fire Guys Ponytails Pi 1 episode
2006 Trapped in TV Guide Series regular Unknown episodes
2006 What About Brian Sally 1 episode
2007 Tell Me You Love Me Louise 3 episodes
2008 Turbo Dates Sandy 1 episode
2008–2009 The Tony Rock Project Sketch Performer 4 episodes
2009 House Courtney Episode: "Here Kitty"
2011–2013 Whitney Whitney 38 episodes, also creator, writer, and executive producer
2011–2017 2 Broke Girls — 138 episodes, creator, writer, and executive producer
2011 Dave's Old Porn Guest host 1 episode
2012–2013 Love You, Mean It Host 11 episodes, also executive producer
2014 Comedy Bang! Bang! Herself 1 episode
2015 Maron Herself 2 episodes
2015 The Jim Gaffigan Show Herself 1 episode
2015–2016 Undateable Charlotte 5 episodes
2016 Workaholics Juliette 1 episode
2018 Crashing Herself 1 episode
2018–2019 Funny You Should Ask Herself 13 episodes
2021 Tacoma FD Courtney 1 episode
2021 The Masked Dancer Herself (guest panelist) 1 episode
2021 The Wendy Williams Show Herself Guest host
2022 Conjuring Kesha Herself Episode: "Not today, Satan"
2023 Accused Brenda Episode: "Brenda's Story"
2023 Physical Rita Bachmann Episode: "Like a Bitch"
2023 Cooper's Bar Britney Lasker 2 episodes

Comedy specials

Year Title Notes Ref.
2010 Money Shot Premiered on Comedy Central
2014 I Love You
2016 I'm Your Girlfriend Premiered on HBO
2019 Can I Touch It? Premiered on Netflix
2022 Jokes
2023 Roast of Whitney Cummings Only Fans TV
2023 Mouthy Only Fans TV

Bibliography

References

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