Michelle Wolf

After a half-decade of work as a stand-up comic, writer/performer Michelle Wolf earned her big break with her work as head writer and cast member on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" (NBC, 2014-), where her fresh and insightful examination of politics and pop culture led to a correspondent role on "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah" (Comedy Central, 2015-) and her own HBO special, "Michelle Wolf: Nice Lady" (2017). Born in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Wolf was active in sports while attending both Hershey High School and the College of William and Mary, from which she graduated in 2003 and 2007, respectively. After graduation, she worked in finance while exploring her interest in comedy through an improvisation class. The experience proved to be a transformative one, spurring Wolf to pursue a career in comedy that bloomed in 2014 with an appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers." She soon joined the writing staff on "Meyers" and worked her way up to writing supervisor and guest performer while also contributing material to "The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards" (NBC, 2014-), which was hosted by Meyers, "The 88th Academy Awards" (ABC, 2016-), hosted by Chris Rock, and "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah" as both a writer and contributor. Wolf also continued to hone her stand-up act, appearing on "Live at the Apollo" (BBC One/Two, 2004-) and "The Edinburgh Festival" in 2016 alone. The following year, she earned an HBO special, "Michelle Wolf: Nice Lady," and in 2018, Wolf was announced as the host of the White House Correspondents Association's annual dinner. Her occasionally foul-mouthed routine at the end of the night caused an immediate uproar, as Republican pundits and politicians complained that Wolf's jokes about White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was seated on the dais at the time, were attacks on her physical appearance; Wolf's equally impassioned defenders pointed out that the jokes were about Sanders' propensity for lying during news briefings. The uproar over these jokes and others was enough that the head of the WHCA issued a statement distancing itself from Wolf, which led to further discussion and arguments. (During the routine itself, Wolf had cracked "Yeah, you should have done more research before you got me to do this" after a risque joke about the Trump-resistance symbol the "pussy hat.") In May of the same year, a newly high-profile Wolf began hosting a weekly comedy show, "The Break with Michelle Wolf" (Netflix 2018), on Netflix. However, the series suffered from poor ratings and middling reviews and was canceled after its first season.