Socio-political comedian, community activist, and latenight TV host W. Kamau Bell is taking the comedy world by storm. The third cycle of his weekly half-hour FX series, Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, premiered on January 17th, 2013. The series premiered on Thursday, August 9th, 2012 to critical acclaim with The NY Times calling Kamau “the most promising new talent in political comedy in many years.” The show was nominated for “Best Talk Series” at the 2012 NAACP Image Awards and Salon.com listed Kamau on their “Sexiest Men of 2012” list, calling the show “surreptitiously revolutionary in its effortless diversity and humanism.” The San Francisco Chronicle raves, “it makes The Daily Show seem like something your dad watches…FX should consider giving Bell a nightly slot.” Totally Biased is executive produced by Chris Rock, who became a fan after seeing a performance of Kamau’s one man show. Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell dissects topical issues of race, sex, politics, class, and culture. The series shoots in New York and spotlights commentary and comedic sketches from Kamau, along with features from contributors.

In 2010, Kamau released his second stand up album, Face Full of Flour, which was named one of the Top 10 Best Comedy Albums of the year by iTunes and Punchline Magazine. His first album One Nig Only was released in 2007. Also in 2007 he developed his one-man show The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About An Hour, which received rave reviews from audiences, critics, and industry insiders. The show was a comedy pick in The Guardian during its 2011 run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a Time Out NY critic’s pick in the 2010 NY Comedy Festival, and played to sold-out audiences in the 2009 NY International Fringe Festival.
Kamau is a founding member of the stand-up comedy collective “Laughter Against the Machine,” which, using fan-funding via Kickstarter, toured some of the most politically charged states in the country in 2011 shooting a documentary that explores what role comedy plays in the revolution. In addition to visiting seven of the Occupy Wall Street encampments, they crossed the border in Arizona with immigration rights groups Culturestrike and Puente, marched with striking hotel workers in Chicago, went to a Mosque in Michigan, touched the levee in the lower 9th ward in New Orleans, and hung out with street artists against oil pipelines in DC. In 2012, portions of the documentary were featured at The Netroots Nation Rally and The Take Back The American Dream Conference.

Kamau co-hosts the podcast The Field Negro’s Guide to Arts & Culture with Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid, writes the blog “Kamau’s Komedy Korner” for the San Francisco Weekly, and sits on the board of The Applied Research Center, a racial justice think tank and home for media and activism. He has been featured on several of the biggest comedy podcasts including WTF with Marc Maron, Comedy & Everything Else, Citizen Radio, The Sound of Young America, and Jordan, Jesse, GO!, and is a regular correspondent on The War Room on Current TV.

Praised by Punchline Magazine as “one of our nation’s most adept racial commentators with a blistering wit,” Kamau was voted San Francisco’s best comedian by the SF Weekly, the SF Bay Guardian, and 7×7 Magazine. Robin Williams calls Kamau “ferociously funny,” and Vernon Reid of the band Living Colour offers “W. Kamau Bell is in the vanguard of a new era of American comedy for an unsettling, troubling, and strangely hopeful time. Firmly in the fearless tradition of Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, and Chris Rock. Comedy as common sense purged of the absurd hypocrisy that is Our America.” The SF Weekly called Kamau “smart, stylish, and very much in the mold of politically outspoken comedians like Dave Chappelle,” though he was more excited that they called him “handsome.”

NICE THINGS PEOPLE SAY ABOUT ME:

— Chris Rock

“W. Kamau Bell is ferociously funny.”— Robin Williams

“W. Kamau Bell is the most important guy doing comedy right now. Do yourself a favor and go see him. He’s got the most astute, hilarious and completely righteous material going and he’s going to be a legend in his own lifetime like Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce. Think Bill Hicks but slightly taller.”— Margaret Cho

“One of our country’s most adept racial commentators with a blistering wit and a willingness to say what you quickly realize you’ve always thought. He is relentlessly intelligent, fusing references to create a rich expression of incredulity in a post-Obama world.” — Punchline Magazine

“Smart, stylish, and very much in the mold of politically outspoken comedians like Dave Chappelle and Margaret Cho”— Hiya Swanhuyser, The SF Weekly

“W. Kamau Bell is in the vanguard of a new era of American comedy for an unsettling, troubling, and strangely hopeful time. Firmly in the fearless tradition of Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, & Chris Rock. Comedy as common sense purged of the absurd hypocrisy that is Our America.”— Vernon Reid, Songwriter & Guitarist of Grammy Award Winning Band, Living Colour

“Alright, everyone. All at once now. Go to iTunes and download W. Kamau Bell’s new comedy album- Face Full Of Flour. Hilarious, with somethin’ to say about the world. You like comedy? You like Dave Chapelle? You like Black People? You’ll love this shit.” — Boots Riley, Activist & Rapper for Street Sweeper Social Club & The Coup

“Simply put, U ROCK!!!! Funny, honest and politically incorrect while being fully correct!”— Jimi Hazel, Lead Singer & Guitarist of 24-7 Spyz

“The show was great–really great. Smart, I learned things, I laughed, I was proud to know you and the fact that you are black really works for the show.”— Marc Maron, WTF with Marc Maron

“Happily, Bell finds comic gold in the wide range of material he mines, offering provocative insights into an ugly reality. FOUR STARS” — Time Out New York

“The personable, quick comic skewers racism, stereotypes and an assortment of iconic taboos with provocative wit. — FOUR STARS” — The San Francisco Chronicle

“Tall, dark and hilarious… Bell’s solo show is daring, insightful, challenging, sometimes interactive, up-to-the-minute—and did I mention hilarious?” — NYTheatre.com

“W. Kamau Bell plays against type and comes with not only the insights you wish you had spewed first but also the wit.” — The San Francisco Bay Guardian

“By making no subject off limits, keeping no discrimination too taboo, and leaving no room for self-denial, Kamau’s Bell Curve is not only a powerful comedic performance but an outlet for a necessary dialogue.” — Flavorpill.com

“Seldom do homegrown comedians have as much personal magnetism or shrewd observations as W. Kamau Bell.” — East Bay Express