Janine Brito is an American comedian, actress and writer. Prominent within the San Francisco stand-up comedy scene, she is recognized nationally as a writer and on-air correspondent for the television program Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, which premiered on FX in 2012. She joined the comedy series One Day at a Time on Netflix in the show's third season as both a writer and actor.
Early life and career
Brito was born in
Florida. She attended junior high school in
Scotland and
Hong Kong and high school in
Kentucky. She is of Cuban and Icelandic descent and spoke only Spanish before
kindergarten.
After high school, Brito moved to St. Louis to pursue a business degree at the Washington University in St. Louis.
Once she graduated from college, she remained in St. Louis and launched her career in
comedy. Though she was politically active in college with the student and
labor rights movement, her comedy was not explicitly
political humor at first.
Eventually, she moved to
Oakland specifically for the city's comedy scene and reputation for fostering progressive comics. It was in Oakland that she honed her focus on identity politics and decided to take more risks in her act, such as adopting her signature
androgynous style.
Shortly after moving to the Bay Area around 2008, Brito met comic W. Kamau Bell. Bell became a mentor to Brito, taking her under his wing as his "comedy daughter".
In 2019, Brito joined the comedy web television series One Day at a Time as both a writer and an actor. She had a small part in Amy Poehler's feature-film directorial debut, Wine Country. In May 2019, Brito performed as a stand-up comedian on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Comedy style
Her colleague and longtime friend W. Kamau Bell describes Brito as "a sarcastic, snarky smart bomb of comedy funk straight from the 80s".
Brito is often placed within the alternative comedy scene and tends to focus on issues of
gender, race, and
sexuality. She often derives humor from her half-
Cubans background and her childhood fixation on worrying about being the
Antichrist. She is also known for her
sartorial choices and frequent donning of
neckties. An article written by
feminist website
Feministing, says her comedy is "a punch in the face of convention and offers a refreshing departure from the straight, white, male
narrative that usually relies on tired tropes and
stereotypes."
Reception
Brito won the SF Women's Comedy Competition in 2009 and the Silver Nail Award from local SF bcasting network
Rooftop Comedy. She was also praised by
7×7 magazine as "one of SF's more daring voices" and as one of "the 7 funniest people in town". She was named the 2011 "Best Comedian with a Messag" by the
East Bay Express.
At the start of the 2013 season,
The A.V. Club wrote in one review of
Totally Biased, "Also: more Janine Brito, please.
Totally Biased needs so much more of her".
Personal life
Brito got engaged to
Saturday Night Live alum
Paula Pell in August 2018.
They were married on November 13, 2020.
External links
