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 descent. She attended college at

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in Miami-Dade County. Founded in 1965, the school opened its doors to students in 1972. FIU has grown to become the third-largest uni ...

and was considering a career in journalism before moving into comedy.

Career

Buteau started performing comedy a few days after

September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

. After five years as a stand-up comedian, Buteau landed her first television spot on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

. In 2017, Buteau was listed as one of ten comedians to watch by ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

''. In 2018, Buteau started hosting the ''Late Night Whenever!'' podcast, which was labeled as "one of the best podcasts of 2018 so far" by ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

''. Buteau was also part of ''The Comedy Lineup'' 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 fil ...

where up and coming comedians have 15 minute stand-up sets. In 2019, Buteau appeared in the movies: ''Someone Great'', ''

Isn't It Romantic "Isn't It Romantic?" is a popular song and part of the Great American Songbook. The music was composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Lorenz Hart. It has a 32-bar chorus in A–B–A–C form. Alec Wilder, in his book ''American Popular So ...

'', ''Sell By'', and '' Always Be My Maybe''. She also began hosting the

WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that di ...

podcast, ''Adulting'', with co-host

Jordan Carlos Jordan Carlos (born February 2, 1978) is an American stand-up comedian who played a recurring character on ''The Colbert Report'' and is a co-host on the Nickelodeon kids' show '' Me TV''. He also appeared as a panelist and reporter on ''The Night ...

. That same year, Buteau appeared in two television series: '' First Wives Club'' and ''

Tales of the City ''Tales of the City'' is a series of nine novels written by American author Armistead Maupin from 1978 to 2014, depicting the life of a group of friends in San Francisco, many of whom are LGBT. The stories from ''Tales'' were originally serial ...

''. In 2020, Buteau started hosting '' The Circle'', a reality TV show on

. In 2020, Buteau published her first book, a collection of personal essays titled ''Survival of the Thickest,'' with Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Buteau's ''Michelle Buteau: Welcome to Buteaupia'' won a 2021

Critics' Choice Television Award The Critics' Choice Television Awards are accolades that are presented annually by the Critics Choice Association (CCA). They were established in 2011, and the first ceremony was held on June 20, 2011, and streamed live on VH1.com. The fourt ...

for Best Comedy Special. In June 2022, it was announced that Buteau is set to take part in a movie directed by

Pamela Adlon Pamela Fionna Adlon (; ; born July 9, 1966) is an American actress. She is known for voicing Bobby Hill in the animated comedy series ''King of the Hill'' (1997–2010), for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award. She also voiced Baloo in ''Jungl ...

. Buteau will play the role of Dawn, the film's main character's best friend.

Personal life

Buteau married Dutch photographer Gijs van der Most in 2010. Buteau and van der Most have twins, Hazel and Otis van der Most, who were born in January 2019 via

surrogacy Surrogacy is an arrangement, often supported by a legal agreement, whereby a woman agrees to delivery/labour for another person or people, who will become the child's parent(s) after birth. People may seek a surrogacy arrangement when pregnan ...

. She is

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Buteau, Michelle American television actresses Living people Actresses from New Jersey American people of Haitian descent American actors of Jamaican descent American people of Lebanese descent American people of French descent American women comedians American film actresses American women podcasters American podcasters 21st-century American comedians American stand-up comedians Comedians from New Jersey 21st-century American actresses 1977 births African-American Catholics Catholics from New Jersey