Janine Brito is an American comedian, actress, and writer. Prominent within the

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

stand-up comedy scene, she is recognized nationally as a writer and on-air

correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

for the

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

'' Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell'', which premiered on FX in 2012 and was cancelled early in its second

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

due to a drop in ratings after the series was moved to FX's spin-off

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

FXX FXX is an American basic cable channel owned by the Walt Disney Television unit of The Walt Disney Company through FX Networks, LLC. It is the partner channel of FX, with its programming focusing on original and acquired comedy series and fe ...

. She joined the comedy series '' One Day at a Time'' on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

in the show's third season as both a writer and an actor.

Early life and career

Brito was born in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. She attended junior high school in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

and high school in

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

. She is of Cuban and Icelandic descent and spoke only Spanish before

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th ce ...

. After high school, Brito moved to

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

to pursue a business degree at the

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

. Once she graduated from college, she remained in St. Louis and launched her career in

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

. Though she was politically active in college with the student and labor rights movement, her comedy was not explicitly

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

at first. Eventually, she moved to Oakland specifically for the city's comedy scene and reputation for fostering progressive comics. It was in Oakland that she honed her focus on

identity politics Identity politics is a political approach wherein people of a particular race, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, social background, social class, or other identifying factors develop political agendas that are based upon these i ...

and decided to take more risks in her act, such as adopting her signature androgynous style. Shortly after moving to the Bay Area around 2008, Brito met comic

W. Kamau Bell Walter Kamau Bell (born January 26, 1973) is an American stand-up comic and television host. He has hosted the CNN series ''United Shades of America'' since 2016, and hosted FXX television series '' Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell'' from 2012 ...

. Bell became a

mentor Mentorship is the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the personal and p ...

to Brito, taking her under his wing as his "comedy daughter". In 2010, she joined Bell and fellow comic Nato Green in Laughter Against the Machine, a political comedy tour that was subsequently made into a documentary set to premiere in 2014. In 2012, Bell invited Brito to join the writing staff of his new FX series '' Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell''. In addition to writing on the series, Brito frequently appeared on air in pieces covering topics like Miss Fire Island, LGBTQ athletes, and the "war on women". In 2019, Brito joined the comedy web television series '' One Day at a Time'' as both a writer and an actor. She had a small part in

Amy Poehler Amy Poehler (; born September 16, 1971) is an American comedian, actress, writer, producer, and director. After studying improv at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, Poehler co-founded the improvisational-comedy tro ...

's feature-film directorial debut, ''

Wine Country Wine Country is the region of California, in the northern San Francisco Bay Area, known worldwide as a premier wine-growing region. The region is famed for its wineries, its cuisine, Michelin star restaurants, boutique hotels, luxury resort ...

''. In May 2019, Brito performed as a stand-up comedian on '' Late Night with Seth Meyers''. She is a writer on the animated comedy series ''

Bless the Harts ''Bless the Harts'' is an American animated sitcom created by Emily Spivey for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Debuting on September 29, 2019, the series is executive produced by Spivey, Andy Bobrow, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Kristen Wiig, ...

'', starring Maya Rudolph and

Kristen Wiig Kristen Carroll Wiig (; born August 22, 1973) is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Born in Canandaigua, New York, she was raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Rochester, New York. She moved to Los Angeles, where she jo ...

. In "Catskills", the fifth episode of the first season of the

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera '' Pavo'' and '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are r ...

musical comedy ''

Girls5eva ''Girls5eva'' is an American musical comedy television series created by Meredith Scardino that premiered on May 6, 2021, on Peacock. The series centers on four women who were part of a girl group named Girls5eva, which was briefly popular arou ...

'', she guest-starred as the ex-wife of Gloria (played by her real-life wife,

Paula Pell Paula Pell (born April 15, 1963) is an American comedy writer, producer, and actress, best known for her work writing for the sketch series ''Saturday Night Live,'' being recognized with a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety ...

Comedy style

Her colleague and longtime friend

describes Brito as "a sarcastic, snarky smart bomb of comedy funk straight from the 80s". Brito is often placed within the alternative comedy scene and tends to focus on issues of

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

, and sexuality. She often derives humor from her half-

Cuban Cuban may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Cuba, a country in the Caribbean * Cubans, people from Cuba, or of Cuban descent ** Cuban exile, a person who left Cuba for political reasons, or a descendant thereof * Cuban citizen, a perso ...

background and her childhood fixation on worrying about being the

Antichrist In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form)1 John ; . 2 John . ...

. She is also known for her

sartorial {{Short pages monitor