Gaby Dunn

Gabe Dunn (born June 1, 1988) is an American writer, actor, pop journalist, comedian, LGBTQ activist, and podcaster. They were a writer and director for BuzzFeed Video, before leaving to focus on their YouTube comedy show and podcast ''Just Between Us'' with fellow former BuzzFeed writer Allison Raskin.

Dunn's writings as a journalist have appeared in ''The New York Times'', ''The Boston Globe'', ''Playboy'', ''Vice'', ''The Huffington Post'', ''Cosmopolitan'', '' Salon'', and '' Slate''. Their joint novel with Raskin, ''I Hate Everyone but You'', was released on September 5, 2017 through Wednesday Books. It reached the top ten on ''The New York Times'' bestsellers list.

Since 2016, they have hosted ''Bad with Money'', a podcast that launched at the Panoply, which primarily focuses on economy lessons, while also delving into poverty and economic oppression. They were a producer of the independent community radio station WFMU. Their web project, 100interviews.com, was named "Best Blog" by ''The Village Voice'' in 2010.

Early life and education

Dunn was born on June 1, 1988. They used the name Gaby Dunn prior to transitioning. They attended David Posnack Jewish Day School in Plantation, Florida. They attended Emerson College, where they majored in Multimedia Journalism, graduating in 2009. They are Jewish.

Dunn began performing during their first year at Emerson, with the sketch comedy troupe Chocolate Cake City (CCC). Dunn had wanted to audition for CCC, but was too scared to do so until they were urged to take the audition slot of a former boyfriend who had become sick the day before and could not perform. Their audition was successful and they became a member of the troupe. At the time they considered themself a better writer than actor, and working in CCC allowed them to do both, since members were expected to write and perform their own sketches.

During their second year, Dunn began a two-year stint as a crime reporter for ''The Boston Globe''. They worked the 6:30 pm – 2:30 am shift, using a police scanner to monitor potential news items, and then driving to the scene of the crime to write about it. After their junior year, Dunn worked as an intern at ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart''.

Career

100 Interviews

In October 2010, Dunn created 100interviews.com, a Tumblr blog in which they intended to publish transcripts of 100 interviews, given over the course of a single year, with a variety of different people. Interview subjects included a transgender person, a rocket scientist, an Abraham Lincoln expert, and Stephen Colbert. Their initial inspiration for the project stemmed from their own personal desire to meet different people and hear their stories. However, Dunn also wanted to offer readers the opportunity to "vicariously meet people" whose lives were different from their own.

Because 100 Interviews was an independent project, Dunn sometimes solicited interviews with candidates in non-traditional unexpected ways. Children's horror author R. L. Stine agreed to sit for an interview after Dunn "cold-tweeted" him on Twitter. After trying and failing to interview Colbert by crashing a $2,000 a plate dinner gala, Dunn settled for asking him questions during a pre-show Q&A for ''The Colbert Report''.

Dunn's attempts to gain wider exposure for what they called their "diary journalism" were initially met with rejection. Dunn has been recognized as a success case of the use of social media for self-promotion, particularly Twitter and Tumblr, the micro-blogging service and web application platform through which they initially self-published their interviews. The success of 100 Interviews caused Dunn's work to be noticed by the Village Voice and ''New York Times'' culture editor Adam Sternbergh.

Just Between Us

In 2014, Dunn created a YouTube channel with their best friend Allison Raskin called Just Between Us (JBU). The two play characters based on themselves, which they describe as an odd couple. Dunn plays a sex-positive, bisexual, feminist in contrast to Raskin's uptight, straight, single character. They began with giving love advice, and then added sketches. The advice show sometimes features guest stars, which in the past have included family members and close friends. Just Between Us now has more than 670,000 subscribers and over 160 million views.

''Bad with Money with Gaby Dunn''

In August 2016, Dunn began a podcast with the intent of exposing and analyzing money problems that most people face yet no one talks about. The podcast was called ''Bad with Money with Gaby Dunn''. On their podcast they discuss their financial experiences in regards to their debt, career, and also systematic financial systems in place that make earning money difficult. Their guests have ranged from financial psychologist Dr. Brad Klontz to Senator Elizabeth Warren to feminist scholar and writer Roxane Gay.

A book based on the podcast called Bad With Money: The Imperfect Art of Getting Your Financial Sh*t Together was published in 2019. Dunn toured with the book, which went into three printings.

This podcast stems from a long conversation Dunn has had around money and the internet. After an article they wrote for Fusion went viral in December 2015, Dunn became one of the leading spokespeople for the intersection of being famous online and making a living. Many YouTubers, while "internet famous", cannot profit off of their celebrity for fear of being seen as disingenuous, as Dunn describes in the documentary ''Vlogumentary'' (2016), in which they show one of the jobs as a courier and also the fans they run into as they’re working.

''I Hate Everyone But You''

Dunn's debut novel, written with Allison Raskin, was published on September 5, 2017. A follow-up novel was released in July 2019, titled ''Please Send Help''.

In 2019, Dunn was also a consulting producer on the Netflix animated series, '' Big Mouth'', created by comedian Nick Kroll.

''Apocalypse Untreated''

In 2020, Dunn created, wrote, and starred in an Audible Original fiction podcast called Apocalypse Untreated about teenagers in a wilderness rehab and troubled teen program trying to survive after a meteor strike.

''Bury The Lede''

In October 2019, Dunn's debut original graphic novel, ''Bury the Lede'' was released in partnership with BOOM! Studios. It is a queer crime thriller that was inspired by Dunn’s own experiences working as a young reporter at the ''Boston Globe''. ''Bury the Lede'' was illustrated by Claire Roe.

''GRINDR BABY''

In December 2022, Dunn's directorial debut short film ''Grinder Baby'' was selected as Frameline Voices 2023, a curated program of short films and episodic content representing experiences unique to LGBTQ+ people and communities.

Personal life

Dunn has a younger sister, Cheyanne Dunn. Dunn is bisexual and polyamorous. In a July 5, 2021 interview on the ''Gender Reveal'' podcast, Dunn said that they had been exploring their gender and were probably non-binary, and had begun using they/them pronouns, which they later confirmed as a permanent change. In January 2023, Dunn revealed their new name, Gabe, via social media.https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm2-UelrC9G/?hl=en

References

External links

100interviews.com
Dunn's project to publish 100 interviews.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunn, Gaby
1988 births
21st-century American comedians
21st-century American writers
American bloggers
American feminists
American writers
American YouTubers
Bisexual writers
BuzzFeed people
Emerson College alumni
Jewish American entertainers
Jewish American writers
Non-binary comedians
LGBT Jews
LGBT people from Florida
American LGBT writers
LGBT YouTubers
Living people
Non-binary writers
Place of birth missing (living people)
YouTube podcasters
Comedy YouTubers
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
American non-binary actors
21st-century American Jews
Polyamorous people
Bisexual non-binary people
Transgender Jews