AWKWAFINA COMING TO COMEDY CENTRAL IN NEW SCRIPTED COMEDY SERIES

• Comedy Central Orders 10 Episodes of Awkwafina Starring Awkwafina, BD Wong and Lori Tan Chinn

LOS ANGELES, November 29, 2018– Comedy Central is working with  ascendant multi-hyphenate Awkwafina, as the #1 brand in comedy ordered 10 episodes of her self-titled scripted series, it was announced today by Sarah Babineau and Jonas Larsen, Executive Vice Presidents and Co-Heads of Talent and Development for Comedy Central.

Awkwafina is a half-hour scripted narrative starring writer, actor and rapper Awkwafina (Ocean’s 8, Crazy Rich Asians) as a twenty-something living in Queens, striving for a larger than life existence while living with her father and grandmother. Awkwafina, Karey Dornetto (SMILF, Portlandia) and Teresa Hsiao (Family Guy, American Dad) wrote the pilot directed by Lucia Aniello (Broad City, Rough Night). The cast is rounded out by Bowen Yang as Awkwafina’s more successful cousin, BD Wong as her father, and Lori Tan Chinn as her grandmother. Awkwafina is executive produced by Awkwafina, Dornetto, Aniello, Karey Dornetto, Peter Principato and Itay Reiss of Artists First, and co-executive produced by Hsiao. Monika Zielinska, Adam Londy and Rachel Olson are Executives in Charge of the show for Comedy Central.

“I’ve been watching Comedy Central since I was old enough to hold a remote, and so many of their shows have defined who I am today,” said Awkwafina. “I am so honored to be given their platform to tell the story of an Asian American girl against the backdrop of the city I was raised.”

“This is a special project. Inspired by Awkwafina’s formative years in Queens, the show is both a personal look into one of comedy’s brightest stars and also a relatable, funny profile of a young hustler’s struggle,” said Larsen and Babineau. “We’re happy to be used as a pawn in Awkwafina’s elaborate, EGOT endgame.”

Looking ahead, Comedy Central has a stacked year to offer fans with a programming slate that will feature new and returning series including: the premieres of scripted half-hour series Robbie, The Other Two and South Side; sketch-comedy series Alternatino with Arturo Castro; stand-up series This Week at the Comedy Cellar and The New Negroes; new series from Jordan Klepper and Anthony Jeselnik; along with the final season of Broad City, the return of the critically acclaimed Corporate, and new seasons of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Tosh.0, Drunk History, The Jim Jefferies Show and much, much more.

Heading into 2019 Comedy Central is riding with momentum, finishing the recently-concluded fiscal year with ratings up +6% among Adults 18-49 – led by the highest-rated year among Women 18-49 (+13%) since 2014 – to earn its largest demo share in total day in three years. Comedy Central also registered massive multiplatform growth across the year with nearly 4.7 billion videos (8 billion minutes of content) streamed across digital and social platforms, year-over-year increases of +63% and +57%, respectively.

Comedy Central gives audiences access to a world of super funny, personally relatable, culturally relevant, and provocative comedy that tells the funny truths of life, every day and everywhere. From award-winning late-night, scripted and animated series to stand-up specials, short-form and sketch, Comedy Central has it all. A subsidiary of Viacom Inc., Comedy Central is available to more than 300 million households in over 150 countries across the globe. 

Awkwafina is represented by UTA, Artists First and lawyer Isaac Dunham.