Whitney Cummings

Cummings was born in Washington, D.C., where she studied acting at the Studio Theatre; in 2004 she graduated magna cum laude from the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania, commonly called Penn, is a private research university and Ivy League member in Philadelphia. It traces its origins to a 1740 charity-school project; Benjamin Franklin proposed his academy in 1749, classes began in 1751, and a 1791 merger established the institution under its present name. Penn has 12 schools, with undergraduate education concentrated in arts and sciences, engineering, nursing and Wharton. Enrollment totaled 29,384 in fall 2025, and the fiscal 2025 endowment was $24.81 billion. As of October 2026, J. Larry Jameson was president, with his term scheduled to end on June 30, 2027.Open the full entry with a degree in communication.⁠[1]

Early on she pranked celebrities on MTV’s Punk’d, and later became a regular on Chelsea Lately and the Comedy Central Roast.⁠[2]

In 2007 she was named one of Variety’s “Top Ten Comics to Watch.”⁠[1]

In 2010 she released the stand-up special Money Shot on Comedy Central, followed by I Love You on Comedy Central (2014) and I’m Your Girlfriend on HBO (2016).⁠[3]

In September 2011 the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls, which she co-created and co-produced with Michael Patrick King, a director and writer on Sex and the City, premiered to 19.2 million viewers; that same week her NBC sitcom Whitney, which she created and starred in, also premiered.⁠[4]

On November 28, 2012, her weekly talk show Love You, Mean It with Whitney Cummings premiered on E!, offering commentary on pop culture and celebrity news, with Julian McCullough as her sidekick.⁠[5]

In May 2013 NBC canceled Whitney after two seasons; the show had opened to 7 million viewers, fell to 4 million by the end of its first season and later drew fewer than 3 million.⁠[6]

After both Whitney and Love You, Mean It ended, she returned to stand-up touring, saying stand-up, where she started, gives her stability, while television is incredibly challenging and physically draining.⁠[2]

I’m Your Girlfriend was taped at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica, California, and directed by Marty Callner; her acting credits also include Maron and Workaholics.⁠[7]

In 2017 Putnam published her 288-page memoir I’m Fine... and Other Lies, which recounts her personal experiences with humor and candor.⁠[8]

She co-wrote, with Neal Brennan, and directed her first feature film, The Female Brain, in which she plays a fictionalized version of neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine, author of the book of the same name.⁠[9]

She served as a co-showrunner on ABCABCABC (American Broadcasting Company) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It grew out of NBC’s Blue radio network, took its name after becoming independent in 1943, developed into a national television network after merging with United Paramount Theatres in 1953, was acquired by Capital Cities in 1985, and has been owned by The Walt Disney Company since 1996. With CBS and NBC it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks, and it is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry’s Roseanne revival and publicly announced in May 2018 that she was leaving because of work commitments and touring; after ABC canceled the show, she said her heart was broken.⁠[10]

In 2019 she launched Good For You, a self-produced podcast whose guests include comedians and experts from various fields.⁠[11]

That year her Netflix stand-up special Can I Touch It? was released; a robot built to resemble her shares the stage for half the show, and a short documentary at the end shows how the robot was made.⁠[12]

She appeared on episode 55 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, whose description calls her a stand-up comedian, actor, producer, writer, director and host of the podcast Good for You and mentions Bearclaw, the robot replica of her featured in Can I Touch It?; topics included human reactions to robots, fear of robots, surveillance, animals, neurology, social media, love and mortality.⁠[13]

Her fifth stand-up special, Whitney Cummings: Jokes, taped at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, was her first self-financed special and premiered on Netflix on July 26; she said self-financing gave her control over its distribution.⁠[3]

Jokes was released on Netflix in July 2022; that year her Touch Me Tour visited more than 75 cities across North America.⁠[11]

In November 2023 she released her sixth stand-up special, Mouthy.⁠[14]

On December 19, 2024, Fast Friends, a four-part game show special she hosts, premiered on Max as a competition for fans of Friends.⁠[15]

On December 10, 2024, she announced that the second leg of her Big Baby tour would open January 3, 2025, at the Comedy Mothership in Austin.⁠[14]

Personal website: Public link: https://www.whitneycummings.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[14]