Amber Ruffin
Ruffin in February 2021
Born	Amber Mildred Ruffin (1979-01-09)January 9, 1979 (age 46) Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Occupations	Host comedian writer actress author playwright
Years active	2001–present
Spouse	Jan Schiltmeijer ​ ​ (m. 2010; div. 2023)​

Amber Mildred Ruffin (born January 9, 1979)^[1] is an American comedian, writer and actress.^[2] She hosted her own late-night talk show titledThe Amber Ruffin Show onPeacock. She has been a writer forLate Night with Seth Meyers since 2014. When she joined the show she became the first Black woman to write for a late-night network talk show in the United States.^[3]

In January 2021, she co-authored a book with her sister Lacey Lamar titledYou'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism, which made theNew York Times Best Seller list.^[4][5][6] They released a second book,The World Record Book of Racist Stories, in 2022. In 2022, Ruffin and her writing partnerJenny Hagel co-founded their production company Straight to Cards under their overall deal withUniversal Television.^[7]

Ruffin was born inOmaha, Nebraska, to Theresa and James Ruffin.^[1][8] She is the youngest of five children. As a child, she learnedSigning Exact English to communicate with a deaf neighbor.^[9] Ruffin graduated fromBenson High School in 1996.^[10][11]

In 2001, Ruffin began performing in local theater productions andimprov in Omaha.^[2] While performing with her improv troupe at an event inChicago, Ruffin met comedian and owner ofiO TheaterCharna Halpern. Halpern encouraged Ruffin to move to Chicago saying she believed Ruffin would "have a full-time job, doing comedy, within the year".^[12] In 2008 after finishing her classes at iO, Ruffin moved toAmsterdam to work as a writer and performer on the improv comedy troupeBoom Chicago Amsterdam.

After returning to the United States, Ruffin performed as part ofThe Second City in bothDenver and Chicago, where she first met futureLate Night co-writerJenny Hagel. In 2011, she moved toLos Angeles; joined theYouTube comedy groupRobotDown featuringJessica Lowe, Carlo Corbellini, and Davey Vorhes; and appeared on an episode ofKey & Peele.^[2][13] She also joined the nationally recognized sketch and musical comedy troupeStory Pirates, where she performed sketches based on stories written by kids. Ruffin was also a member ofSacred Fools Theater Company^[14] performing a serialized version ofKing of Kong: A Musical Parody, a two-woman show parodying the documentaryThe King of Kong. The musical was co-written with co-star Lauren Van Kurin and directed by fellow Boom Chicago alumBrendan Hunt, with music by David Schmoll.^[15]King of Kong appeared at the 2014New York International Fringe Festival^[16] winning Best Overall Musical 2014, and the 2015Hollywood Fringe Festival (with Hunt subbing for an unavailable Ruffin),^[17] where it won Best Musical & Outstanding Songwriting. The show returned to Sacred Fools in September 2016 for a performance attended by parody target Billy Mitchell himself.^[18]

In 2013,Saturday Night Live received backlash for not having any Black women on the cast.^[19] Ruffin auditioned for the show in 2014 alongsideTiffany Haddish,Leslie Jones,Gabrielle Dennis,Nicole Byer, Simone Shepherd, andBresha Webb.^[20][12] Ruffin was unsuccessful in her audition. A few days laterSeth Meyers called to ask her to be a writer on his new late night show. Ruffin has been a writer onLate Night with Seth Meyers since the show's start in 2014.^[2][21] In addition to writing she also appears inseveral recurring segments on the program including: "Amber Says What?", "Amber's Minute of Fury", "Jokes Seth Can't Tell" (with fellow writerJenny Hagel), and "Point, Counterpoint".^[22] When theGeorge Floyd protests began, Ruffin opened a week's worth of shows by retelling her experiences with police officers andpolice brutality.^[23] Meyers interviewed Ruffin as a guest for the show's 1,000th episode.

When not writing forLate Night, Ruffin wrote for theComedy Central showDetroiters and was a regular narrator on the Comedy Central showDrunk History. In 2017, Ruffin developed asingle-camera comedy show,Going Dutch, but the series was not ordered.^[24][25][26] She was nominated for aWriters Guild of America award in the category "Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) Series" in 2017.^[27]

In February 2018, Ruffin hosted the70th Writers Guild of America awards ceremony.^[28]

In 2019, NBC ordered a pilot presentation for Ruffin's single-camera comedy seriesVillage Gazette.^[26] In the same year Ruffin was a writer for the first season ofA Black Lady Sketch Show onHBO.

On September 25, 2020 Ruffin's late-night talk show,The Amber Ruffin Show, premiered on NBC's streaming servicePeacock.^[29] The show broke away from the typical late night structure, foregoing guests and focusing instead on topical sketches.^[30] The show was nominated for aWriters Guild of America award in the category "Comedy/Variety Sketch Series" in 2021. The show was also nominated forOutstanding Writing for a Variety Series at the73rd Primetime Emmy Awards.^[31]

Ruffin and her sister Lacey Lamar co-authored a book, titledYou'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism, which was released on January 12, 2021, and appeared on theNew York Times Best Seller list.^[4][5][6]

In February 2021, it was announced that Ruffin was set to co-write the Broadway-boundmusical adaptation ofSome Like It Hot alongsideMatthew Lopez.^[32][33][34] She received aTony Award for Best Book of a Musical nomination for the show.

In September 2022, it was revealed that Ruffin would be the voice actor of Purple, the new spokescandy forM&M's.^[35]

In February 2025, theWhite House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) board announced that Ruffin would be the featured entertainment for theWhite House Correspondents' Dinner on April 26. On March 29, WHCA board presidentEugene Daniels announced that the board had decided to cancel her performance, "to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division".^[36][37] Ruffin's planned appearance had been criticized by White House deputy chief of staffTaylor Budowich, who labeled the WHCA's cancellation of Ruffin's performance as a "cop-out" and described her as "hate-filled".^[37] Commenting on her cancellation, Ruffin said, "I thought when people take away your rights, erase your history and deport your friends, you’re supposed to call it out. But I was wrong."^[38]

Ruffin was married to Dutch artist Jan Schiltmeijer from 2010 until their divorce in 2023.^[39][40] On the last day of 2024'sPride Month, shecame out asqueer onInstagram showing a photo of herself wearing a shirt saying "QUEER."^[41]

• Ruffin, Amber; Lamar, Lacey (January 12, 2021).You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism. Grand Central Publishing.ISBN 978-1-5387-1934-3.
• Ruffin, Amber; Lamar, Lacey (November 22, 2022).The World Record Book of Racist Stories. Grand Central Publishing.ISBN 9781538724576.

• 2018:Crain's New York Business, 40 Under 40^[1]
• 2021:New York Times Best Seller, Hardcover Nonfiction^[43]
• 2021:Time100 Next^[44]

• New Yorkers in journalism

• The Amber Ruffin Show onPeacock
• Amber Ruffin onTwitter
• Amber Ruffin atIMDb

• 1979 births
• 20th-century African-American people
• 20th-century African-American women
• 20th-century American LGBTQ people
• 21st-century African-American women writers
• 21st-century African-American writers
• 21st-century American comedians
• 21st-century American LGBTQ people
• 21st-century American screenwriters
• 21st-century American women writers
• African-American women comedians
• African-American comedians
• African-American LGBTQ people
• African-American screenwriters
• African-American television writers
• African-American television talk show hosts
• American comedy writers
• American expatriates in the Netherlands
• American LGBTQ comedians
• American television talk show hosts
• American television writers
• American women comedians
• American women television writers
• Comedians from Nebraska
• Late Night with Seth Meyers
• Late night television talk show hosts
• LGBTQ people from Nebraska
• Living people
• Screenwriters from Nebraska
• Writers from Omaha, Nebraska
• American queer actresses
• Queer comedians

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from June 2024
• Articles with hCards