''2 Dope Queens'' is a podcast hosted by Jessica Williams and

Phoebe Robinson Phoebe Robinson (born September 28, 1984) is an American comedian, New York Times best-selling writer, and actress based in New York City. Early life and education Robinson grew up in Bedford Heights and Solon, Ohio. She attended high school at ...

that aired between April 4, 2016, and November 14, 2018. For the first seven days following the podcast's launch, it was number one on the

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

podcast charts. It is produced by

WNYC Studios WNYC Studios is a producer and distributor of podcasts and on-demand and broadcast audio. WNYC Studios is a subsidiary of New York Public Radio and is headquartered in New York City. History In May 2015, WNYC began distributing its shows ''R ...

. The podcast features female comedians, comedians of color, and

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

comedians, in an effort to represent people from different backgrounds. The podcast's guests include

Jon Hamm Jonathan Daniel Hamm (born March 10, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Don Draper in the period drama television series ''Mad Men'' (2007–2015), for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Televisi ...

Nick Kroll Nicholas Kroll (born June 5, 1978) is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is known for creating and starring in the Comedy Central series ''Kroll Show'', ''The Oh, Hello Show'', the FX comedy series ''The Lea ...

LeVar Burton Levar Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and television host, best known for playing Geordi La Forge in '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (1987–1994). He also played Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries ''Root ...

Naomi Ekperigin Naomi Ekperigin is an American comedian, actress, producer, and writer. She has written for the television shows ''Great News'' and ''Broad City''. She has acted on the television shows ''Corporate'', ''Search Party (TV series), Search Party'', '' ...

, Nore Davis,

Aparna Nancherla Aparna Nancherla (born August 22, 1982) is an American comedian and actress of Indian descent. She has appeared on ''Inside Amy Schumer'' and has written for ''Late Night with Seth Meyers'' and ''Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell''. Nancherla re ...

Marc Maron Marcus David Maron (born September 27, 1963) is an American stand-up comedian, podcaster, writer, actor, and musician. In the 1990s and 2000s, Maron was a frequent guest on the '' Late Show with David Letterman'' and has appeared more than forty ...

, and

Michelle Buteau Michelle Buteau (born July 24, 1977) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, television host, and podcast host. Early life Buteau was born in New Jersey to a Haitian father of partial Lebanese descent and a Jamaican mother of half-French desc ...

. ''2 Dope Queens'' is WNYC Studios' first comedy podcast. On June 27, 2016, '' Sooo Many White Guys,'' the first ''2 Dope Queens'' spin-off, debuted. The podcast is hosted by Phoebe Robinson and produced by

Ilana Glazer Ilana Glazer (born April 12, 1987) is an American comedian, director, producer, writer, and actress. She co-created and co-starred, with Abbi Jacobson, in the Comedy Central series ''Broad City'', which is based on the web series of the same name ...

. A four-episode

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

special based on the show aired in February and March 2018 directed by podcast guest

Tig Notaro Mathilde O'Callaghan "Tig" Notaro (born March 24, 1971) is an American stand-up comedian, writer, radio contributor, and actress. She is known for her deadpan comedy. Her acclaimed album ''Live'' was nominated in 2014 for the Grammy Award for Be ...

. A second four-episode season aired in 2019.

Format

''2 Dope Queens'' is taped live at Union Hall in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. Though the live show runs about two hours, the podcast is edited down to about an hour. Each episode features three guest comedians. Issues discussed on the podcast include "race, gender, sex, and other topics". Host Jessica Williams said of the podcast, "For our show, people get to be the stars of their own stories and they get to be the stars of their own stand up, so it's really cool to give our friends and a lot of people of color and different orientations an opportunity to speak for themselves and be sort of the main character as opposed to like the side character or supporting character."

History

''2 Dope Queens'' stemmed from ''Blaria LIVE!,'' a monthly stand-up show in Brooklyn, hosted by Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams. ''Blaria LIVE!'' was inspired by the blog of the same name authored by Phoebe Robinson. Similarly to ''2 Dope Queens'', ''Blaria LIVE!'' featured diverse comedians from all over the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The ''2 Dope Queens'' podcast debuted on April 4, 2016. In its first week, it was number one on the iTunes podcast charts and stayed there for a full week. On July 19, 2016, ''Sooo Many White Guys,'' the first ''2 Dope Queens'' spin-off debuted. ''Sooo Many White Guys'' is an interview-

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show ...

hosted by Phoebe Robinson and produced by

with guests including

Nia Long Nia Talita Long (born October 30, 1970) is an American actress. Best known for her work in Black cinema, Long rose to prominence after starring in the film ''Boyz n the Hood'' (1991), and for her portrayal of Beullah "Lisa" Wilkes on the NBC sit ...

Janet Mock Janet Mock (born March 10, 1983) is an American writer, television host, director, producer and transgender rights activist. Her debut book, the memoir '' Redefining Realness'', became a ''New York Times'' bestseller. She is a contributing edit ...

Hari Kondabolu Hari Karthikeya Kondabolu (born October 21, 1982)Beem, p. 38 is an American stand-up comic. His comedy covers subjects such as race, inequity, and Indian stereotypes. He was a writer for ''Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell'' and the creator of th ...

Gina Rodriguez Gina Alexis Rodriguez-LoCicero (born July 30, 1984) is an American actress. She is known for her leading role as Jane Villanueva in The CW satirical romantic dramedy series ''Jane the Virgin'' (2014–2019), for which she received a Golden Glob ...

Roxane Gay Roxane Gay (born October 15, 1974) is an American writer, professor, editor, and social commentator. Gay is the author of ''The New York Times'' best-selling essay collection ''Bad Feminist'' (2014), as well as the short story collection ''Ayiti ...

, and

Hasan Minhaj Hasan Minhaj ( ; born September 23, 1985) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host of Indian descent. His Netflix show ''Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj'' won two Peabody Awards and two Webby A ...

. The podcast inspired two round of HBO specials, also titled ''2 Dope Queens. After taking a break from the podcast to film for HBO, a final episode was published where the two hosts interviewed

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married t ...

and announced the ending of the show.

Awards

Episodes

Season 1 (2018)

Season 2 (2019)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:2 Dope Queens 2016 establishments in New York City WNYC Studios programs 2016 podcast debuts Works by Tig Notaro Podcasts adapted into television shows 2018 podcast endings