''Woke'' is an American comedy television series co-created by Keith Knight and Marshall Todd and starring

Lamorne Morris Lamorne Morris (born August 14, 1983) is an American actor, comedian and television personality. He is known for roles such as Winston Bishop in the Fox sitcom ''New Girl'' (2011-2018), Darrin Morris in the National Geographic docudrama ''Vall ...

. The series premiered on

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

on September 9, 2020. On November 17, 2020, Hulu renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on April 8, 2022. In June 2022,

cancelled the series after two seasons.

Plot

Keef Knight, creator of ''Toast & Butter'', is a black cartoonist on the verge of mainstream success. He prides himself on 'keeping it light' and shies away from taking controversial stances. After being racially profiled by overly aggressive policemen, the traumatized Keef finds that he's able to see and hear inanimate objects talking to him. Now more sensitive to racism, and the everyday microaggressions he'd tried so hard to avoid acknowledging in every situation, Keef must figure out how to maintain his relationships and a career as a 'woke' black man. The show is live action with animated elements.

Cast

as Keef, a cartoonist based on cartoonist and co-creator Keith Knight *

Blake Anderson Blake Raymond Anderson (born March 2, 1984) is an American actor, comedian, producer, screenwriter, and fashion designer. Beginning in 2006, Anderson helped create and join the sketch-comedy troupe Mail Order Comedy, which produced online videos ...

as Gunther, one of Keef's roommates * T. Murph as Clovis, Keef's best friend and roommate *

Rose McIver Frances Rose McIver (born 10 October 1988) is a New Zealand actress. She starred as Olivia "Liv" Moore in The CW supernatural comedy-drama series ''iZombie'' (2015–2019) and played Summer Landsdown the Yellow Ranger in ''Power Rangers RPM'' ( ...

as Adrienne, an artist and Keef's girlfriend (season 1) *

Sasheer Zamata Sasheer Zamata Moore (; born May 6, 1986) is an American actress and comedian known for her work as a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2014 to 2017 as well as her leading roles in the TV series ''Woke'' (2020–2022) and ''Home Econom ...

as Ayana, a reporter for The Bay Arean who calls Keef out *

Aimee Garcia Aimee Sandimés Garcia López de Ordóñez (born November 28, 1978) is an American actress and writer. She is known for her television roles as Veronica Palmero on the ABC sitcom ''George Lopez'', Yvonne Sanchez on the CBS period drama ''Veg ...

as Laura Salgado (season 2) Voice only *

J.B. Smoove Jerry Angelo Brooks (born December 16, 1965), commonly known by his stage name J. B. Smoove, is an American actor, comedian and writer. After beginning his career in 1995 on ''Def Comedy Jam'', he was a writer and performer on NBC's ''Saturday N ...

as Marker *

Nicole Byer Nicole Byer (born August 29, 1986) is an American comedian, actress, and television host. She is known as the host of the Netflix comedic reality bake-off series ''Nailed It!'' (2018–present), for which she received two Primetime Emmy Award no ...

and

Eddie Griffin Edward Rubin Griffin (born July 15, 1968) is an American comedian and actor. He is best known for portraying Eddie Sherman in the sitcom '' Malcolm & Eddie'', the title character in the 2002 comedy film '' Undercover Brother'', and Tiberius Jef ...

as 40 oz Bottles * Cree Summer as Paper Bag *

Tony Hale Anthony Russell Hale (born September 30, 1970) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his role in the Fox comedy series '' Arrested Development'' as Buster Bluth. Hale played Gary Walsh on the HBO comedy ''Veep'' from 2012 until ...

as Butter * Sam Richardson as Toast *

Jack McBrayer Jack McBrayer (; born May 27, 1973) is an American actor and comedian, who gained national exposure for his portrayal of characters on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' and as Kenneth Parcell in ''30 Rock''. For his role in ''30 Rock'' he was no ...

as Sad face *

Cedric the Entertainer Cedric Antonio Kyles (born April 24, 1964), better known by his stage name Cedric the Entertainer, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He hosted BET's '' ComicView'' during the 1993–1994 season and '' Def Comedy Jam'' in 1995. He is ...

as Trashcan *

Keith David Keith David Williams (born June 4, 1956) is an American actor. He is known for his signature deep voice and commanding screen presence in over 300 roles across film, stage, television, and interactive media. He has starred in such films as '' T ...

as Bible

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2020)

Season 2 (2022)

Production

Keith Knight serves as the inspiration of the show. Jay Dyer served as the showrunner for the first season. Anthony King was the showrunner for Season 2.

Release

''Woke'' was released on

on September 9, 2020. The first trailer was released on August 8, 2020. As ''Woke'' Is being produced by ABC Studios and Sony Pictures Television Studios It Expected to be released on

Disney + Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...

internationally as part of the Disney-Sony Deal that means Shows and Movies owned by Sony such as ''Woke'' will come Disney +.

Reception

Critical response

Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported an approval rating of 74% based on 42 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10 for the show's first season. The website's critics consensus reads, "Though ''Woke'' first season doesn't quite know what it wants to say about racism in America, its solid ensemble—led by a well-cast Lamorne Morris—and some surreal silliness make it a messy conversation worth watching."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gave the series a weighted average score of 61 out of 100 based on 19 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."

Accolades

Notes

References

External links

* {{Hulu 2020s American comedy television series 2020 American television series debuts 2022 American television series endings American comedy web series American television series with live action and animation Hulu original programming Television series by ABC Studios Television series by Sony Pictures Television Television series by Stoopid Buddy Stoodios Television shows based on comic strips Television shows set in San Francisco