Whitney Cummings

Whitney Cummings
Born (1982-09-04) September 4, 1982
Georgetown, Washington, D.C., United States
Medium Stand-up, television, film
Nationality American
Alma mater University of Pennsylvania
Years active 2004–present
Genres Observational comedy, insult comedy, blue comedy
Subject(s) Gender differences, sexism, human sexuality, relationships
Notable works and roles Punk'd
The Tony Rock Project
Comedy Central Roasts
Made of Honor
Chelsea Lately
2 Broke Girls
Whitney
Love You, Mean It with Whitney Cummings
Website www.whitneycummings.com

Whitney Cummings (born September 4, 1982)[1] is an American comedian and actress. She is known as the creator and star of the NBC sitcom Whitney, as well as the co-creator of the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls.

Early life

Cummings was born and raised in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.[2] Her mother is Patti Cummings, a former public relations director at Neiman Marcus at Mazza Gallerie.[3][4][2] Her parents divorced when she was 5 years old.[2][5][6] She has an older half-brother named Kevin Cummings, and an older sister, Ashley Cummings.[4][2]

She went to high school at St. Andrew's Episcopal School, Potomac, Maryland, graduating in 2000.[7]

She interned at local NBC news affiliate WRC-TV (Channel 4) as a journalist.[2][8][9] She studied acting at Washington, D.C.’s Studio Theater.[10]

Cummings graduated from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, magna cum laude in 2004 with a degree in Communications.[8][11]

Career

Acting

Cummings moved to Los Angeles after college and worked on Punk'd on MTV in 2004[3] and the same year starred in a low-budget thriller, EMR, which was screened at Cannes.[12][13]

Stand-up

She began performing stand-up in 2004. In 2007, Variety named Cummings one of 10 Comics to Watch in 2007.[10] In 2008, Cummings appeared in the San Francisco audition for Last Comic Standing, although she didn't pass the showcase. She performed on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, and Last Call with Carson Daly.

She co-starred on The Tony Rock Project and appeared in the 2008 movie Made of Honor. She has also made several appearances on the E! show Chelsea Lately on its round table. She hosted the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Dailies.[14] She was named one of 12 Rising Stars of Comedy by Entertainment Weekly in 2008.[15]

Her television appearances have included Comedians of Chelsea Lately, Live Nude Comedy (which she created, starred and wrote for), The Very bad Show, truTV Presents: World's Dumbest..., and the Comedy Central Roasts of Joan Rivers, David Hasselhoff, and Donald Trump.[2] She released her debut stand-up album, Emotional Ninja. 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.

In June 2014, Cummings did her second hour-long special, I Love You, on Comedy Central.[16]

Television

In 2011, two multi-camera, live-audience sitcoms Cummings created[17] were picked up by broadcast networks: 2 Broke Girls (which Cummings co-created and executive produced with Michael Patrick King) and Whitney (which Cummings starred in, executive produced, and created).[18][19] Whitney was not received well by critics,[20][21][22] and Cummings acknowledges it was a learning curve for her.[23][24][25] 2 Broke Girls was continued, and in March 2016 was renewed for a sixth season; Whitney lasted only two seasons, and was cancelled in May 2013.

Cummings had a talk show, Love You, Mean It with Whitney Cummings on E! in 2012,[26] which was cancelled after 11 episodes.[27][28]

She appears in Season 3 of Undateable.

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."[29] Other important influences for her were George Carlin, Bill Cosby—whose show she says she watched regularly "because so much of that was based on his stand up...". Later influences were Dave Attell—"a legend now but he’s very edgy", Lenny Bruce and Bill Hicks.[29]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
2004 EMR CyberBunnyLilly
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.
2012 3,2,1... Frankie Go Boom Claudia
2015 The Wedding Ringer Holly Munk
2015 The Ridiculous 6 Susannah
2016 Unforgettable Filming

Television

Year Title Role Notes
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
2008–09 The Tony Rock Project 4 episodes
2009 House Courtney Episode: "Here Kitty"
2010–13 Whitney Whitney 38 episodes, also creator, writer, and executive producer
2011 Dave's Old Porn Guest host 1 episode
2012–13 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
2015–16 Undateable Charlotte 5 episodes
2016 Workaholics Juliette 1 episode

Short films

Year Title Role Notes
2006 Hooked Vanessa
2006 Life Is Short Natalie
2007 Come to the Net Whitney
2010 Successful Alcoholics
2010 In Fidelity Cindy

Comedy specials

Year Title Notes
2010 Whitney Cummings: Money Shot Premiered on Comedy Central
2014 Whitney Cummings: I Love You Premiered on Comedy Central
2016 I'm Your Girlfriend Premiered on HBO

References

  1. ↑ "Whitney A Cummings: United States Public Records, 1970-2009". FamilySearch. Retrieved August 17, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Zak, Dan (December 8, 2010). "Comedian Whitney Cummings: Bewitching, brazen and with jokes to make you blush". Washington Post. Retrieved November 1, 2011.
  3. 1 2 Leiby, Richard (April 25, 2004). "The Reliable Source". Washington Post. Retrieved November 1, 2011.
  4. 1 2 Grigoriadis, Vanessa (November 18, 2012). "Can Whitney Cummings Get Some Respect?". Vulture (New York Magazine). Retrieved August 17, 2014.
  5. ↑ Stanhope, Kate (September 9, 2011). "Whitney: How Different Is Whitney Cummings From Her TV Persona, Really?". TV Guide. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  6. ↑ Duck, Allison (April 24, 2013). "The Weekly Interview: Whitney Cummings". Las Vegas Weekly. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Whitney Cummings '00 Making Her Mark in Entertainment World". St. Andrew's Episcopal School. April 23, 2010. Archived from the original on January 2, 2014. Retrieved November 1, 2011.
  8. 1 2 "A Woman’s Mind Full Monty — Whitney Cummings". AmericasComedy. November 17, 2011. Retrieved September 8, 2012.
  9. ↑ "The Jester Interview: Whitney Cummings". Jester. June 6, 2011. Retrieved September 7, 2012.
  10. 1 2 Frankel, Daniel (February 27, 2007). "Whitney Cummings: 10 Comics to Watch". Variety. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  11. ↑ Johnson, Greg (May 5, 2011). "Penn entertainers". Penn Current. Retrieved November 1, 2011.
  12. ↑ Harvey, Dennis (February 17, 2005). "Review: ‘EMR’". Variety. Retrieved November 1, 2011.
  13. ↑ Katner, Ben (June 11, 2004). "Whitney Rocks Punk'd!". TV Guide. Retrieved November 1, 2011.
  14. ↑ "Talented Comedian/Actress Whitney Cummings Talks 'Made of Honor' & More". StarPulse. April 29, 2008. Retrieved November 1, 2011.
  15. ↑ Pastorek, Whitney; Snierson, Dan (November 13, 2008). "12 Rising Stars of Comedy". Entertainment Weekly.
  16. ↑ Silverman, Sarah (June 26, 2014). "Sarah Silverman Talks to Whitney Cummings About the Expectation That Comedians Need to Be in Movies". Vulture. New York Magazine. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  17. ↑ Rose, Lacey (August 1, 2011). "'Whitney': 10 Things to Know About the NBC Comedy". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  18. ↑ Stelter, Brian (May 20, 2011). "2 Networks Pin Their Hopes on One Comedian". New York Times. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  19. ↑ Goldman, Andrew (September 16, 2011). "There Is No Escaping Whitney Cummings". New York Times. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  20. ↑ "Whitney: Season 1". Metacritic. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  21. ↑ Blanco, Robert (September 22, 2011). "'Whitney' sitcom fails in its delivery". USA Today. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  22. ↑ Nussbaum, Emiy (November 28, 2011). "Crass Warfare: Raunch and ridicule on “Whitney” and “2 Broke Girls.”". New Yorker. Condé Nast. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  23. ↑ O'Connell, Michael (July 25, 2012). "TCA 2012: Whitney Cummings Admits 'I Wish I Knew How to Act'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  24. ↑ Adalian, Josef (May 13, 2012). "The New Girls: Six female showrunners on why TV just keeps getting better.". New York Magazine. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  25. ↑ Adalian, Josef (May 25, 2012). "Six Female Showrunners Talk Ratings, Their Comedy Icons, and Internet Hate". Vulture. New York Magazine. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  26. ↑ Rose, Lacey (April 29, 2012). "E! Greenlights a Weekly Whitney Cummings Talk Show". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  27. ↑ Kepler, Adam (February 15, 2013). "For Whitney Cummings, Good and Bad Ratings News". ArtsBeat. The New York Times. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  28. ↑ Rose, Lacey (February 14, 2013). "E! Pulls Plug on Whitney Cummings' Late-Night Show". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  29. 1 2 Stipp, Christopher (May 2, 2008). "Trailer Park Whitney Cummings". Fred. Retrieved August 18, 2014. When Dave Attell was asked his opinion on being considered by Cummings to be one of the best comedians alive, he immediately shot himself.

External links

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