In 2008, she was named one of 12 Rising Stars of Comedy by Entertainment Weekly.
Beginning in 2007, Cummings appeared as a regular roundtable guest on the E! series Chelsea Lately, and continued to appear until its conclusion in 2014. She co-starred on The Tony Rock Project and appeared in the 2008 romantic comedy Made of Honor. In 2008, she appeared in the San Francisco audition for Last Comic Standing, although she did not pass the showcase. In 2007, Variety named her one of 10 Comics to Watch in 2007. Cummings began performing stand-up in 2004. That same year, she starred in the low-budget thriller EMR, which was screened at Cannes. Career 2004–2010: Beginnings Ĭummings moved to Los Angeles after college and worked on Punk'd on MTV in 2004. She graduated magna cum laude in 2004 with a degree in Communications, and initially aspired to a career as a journalist. During this time, she worked as a department store model at local shopping malls. Īfter high school, Cummings enrolled at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She studied acting at Washington, D.C.'s Studio Theater. During high school, she interned at Washington's NBC-owned television station WRC-TV. Andrew's Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland, graduating in 2000. At age 12, she temporarily resided with her aunt in Virginia. She has stated that she was raised in a dysfunctional, alcoholic household. Her parents divorced when she was five years old. She has an older half-brother named Kevin and an older sister named Ashley. 2.2 2011–present: Television projects and specials, bookĬummings was born on September 4, 1982, in Washington, D.C., to Patti Cummings, a native of Texas and a public relations director of Neiman Marcus at Mazza Gallerie and Eric Lynn Cummings, a lawyer and venture capitalist.
Cummings's fourth special, Can I Touch It?, premiered on Netflix in July 2019. Beginning in 2018, Cummings served as a producer and writer for the ABC revival of Roseanne, but left the project prior to its cancellation.
Her third special, I'm Your Girlfriend, was released on HBO in 2016, and later delivered as an audio streaming album in 2021. She followed this with a second standup special for the network, entitled I Love You (2014). Simultaneously, Cummings created the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls, which also began in 2011, and concluded in 2017.Ĭummings released her first hour-long standup special, Money Shot, in 2010 on Comedy Central. The series ran for two seasons before being cancelled in 2013. She subsequently created, produced, and starred in NBC's Whitney, a sitcom in which she portrayed a semi-fictionalized version of herself. After beginning standup in 2004, she secured regular appearances as a roundtable guest on Chelsea Lately. Whitney Ann Cummings (born September 4, 1982) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, writer, director, producer and podcaster.Ī native of Washington, D.C., Cummings pursued a comedy career in Los Angeles after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, where she had studied with the intention of becoming a journalist.