Jaboukie Young-White

Young-White was born to Jamaican immigrants and raised in Harvey, Illinois.[1][4] He later attended Marian Catholic High School where he participated in Speech and Theatre before studying at DePaul University,[5] where he became involved in improv comedy through the collegiate improvisation program 'The Titanic Players.'[6] From DePaul, he ultimately left in his senior year to pursue his comedy career full-time.[7]

Young-White performed stand-up for the first time at an open mic night when he was 19; he was hired for his first stand-up gig when he was 21.[8] He continued to perform stand-up at several bars and clubs around Chicago and New York City, and was a finalist at the 2016 NYC Devil Cup Stand Up Festival.[9]

Beginning in late 2016, several of his memes, tweets, and posts went viral.[8][10] He subsequently gained prominence on social media, particularly on Twitter and Instagram, where he grew a large following.[11][12]

In 2017, he was featured on Rolling Stone's "25 Under 25: Meet the Young Musicians, Actors, Activists Changing the World" list.[13] The following year, he was included in Vulture's "20 Comedians You Should and Will Know" list.[14] In 2020, Young-White was placed on BET's "Future 40" list, which is a list of "40 of the most inspiring and innovative vanguards who are redefining what it means to be unapologetically young, gifted & black".[15] Since 2017, he has performed stand-up twice on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.[16][17]

As of 2018, he writes for the Netflix television shows Big Mouth and American Vandal.[18] In October of that year, he was hired as a correspondent on The Daily Show;[19] he made his first appearance opposite Trevor Noah on October 11, 2018.[20][21]

In early 2019, Young-White was negotiating to be a lead, alongside Danielle Macdonald in an untitled Bo Burnham and Amy York Rubin film.[22]

On Martin Luther King Day (January 20, 2020), Young-White was temporarily banned from Twitter for posting a tweet posing as the FBI and claiming that they were responsible for the activist's assassination.[23]

On March 23, 2020, Twitter again suspended Young-White after he changed his display name and icon to that of the CNN Breaking News account, and tweeting: "BREAKING: Joe Biden is not DEAD. He just getting some dick. We've all been there cnn.com", thus making it appear as though CNN had posted the tweet.[24] His account was restored less than a day later. However, he was subsequently stripped of his verified status.[25]

In late 2017, Young-White came out as queer during his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon; he later clarified that he identifies as gay, in his second appearance on the program in late 2018.[26]

He is of Jamaican and Chinese Jamaican descent,[27] and often jokes about being Italian.[28] He has two brothers, Javaughn and Javeigh.[29] He has a dog named Callaloo.[30]

He was a supporter of the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign.[31]

• Jaboukie Young-White at IMDb