W. Kamau Bell is a stand-up comedian, filmmaker, husband, and dad. For seven seasons, he was the host and executive producer of the five-time Emmy Award-winning CNN Original Series United Shades of America. In 2023 Kamau won an Emmy for his HBO documentary 1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed. He also won a Peabody Award for his 2022 Showtime docu-series We Need to Talk About Cosby. He is the co-author of the New York Times bestselling book Do the Work: An Antiracist Activity Book and the author of The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6' 4", African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama's Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian. In March of 2025, Kamau will have a chapter in bestselling author Michael Lewis' new book Who is Government? It is based on Kamau's Washington Post article and short documentary, The Rookie. Kamau's last comedy special, Private School Negro, is available on Netflix. Kamau is on the board of directors for DonorsChoose, a nonprofit that helps teachers raise money for class projects, and Live Free, a nonprofit dedicated to ending gun violence, mass incarceration, and mass criminalization. Kamau is also the ACLU's Artist Ambassador for Racial Justice and hosts the ACLU podcast "At Liberty." In 2023, Kamau and his wife Melissa Hudson Bell co-founded Who Knows Best Productions, a media production company based in Oakland, CA. He cares too much and sleeps too little.
