Amber Ruffin to Host 70th Annual Writers Guild Awards Ceremony in New York
NEW YORK, NY (December 4, 2017) – Amber Ruffin, writer and on-air personality for LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS, will host the 70th annual Writers Guild Awards ceremony at New York’s Edison Ballroom on Sunday, February 11, 2018.
The New York ceremony will be co-executive produced by Bonnie Datt and Shannon Walker. Ann Cohen will serve as the show’s head writer.
“I’m so excited to host the 2018 Writers Guild Awards!” exclaimed Amber Ruffin. “If you’re looking for hard hitting satire on sexual assault allegations, Russia and the Republican tax plan… too bad! This is gonna be all hugs and rainbows! (The hugs will be consensual.)”
With her radical optimism, boundless energy and socially-conscious humor, Ruffin has emerged as a fan favorite on LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS. She is best known for the popular recurring segments “Amber Says What?” and “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell”.
She has been nominated for an Emmy Award and a Writers Guild Award for writing on LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS. When she joined the show in 2014, Ruffin became the first black woman to write for a late-night network talk show in the United States.
Ruffin is also currently a writer on the Comedy Central show DETROITERS and a regular narrator on DRUNK HISTORY. She is an alum of Second City Mainstage and Boom Chicago.
In addition, NBC is currently developing Ruffin’s semi-autobiographical sitcom GOING DUTCH, which she co-wrote with Michael Starrbury (LEGENDS OF CHAMBERLAIN HEIGHTS). The show, which is co-executive produced by Seth Meyers, Lorne Michaels, Andrew Singer and Mike Shoemaker, explores what happens when a woman who moves abroad to escape her overbearing family and the responsibility of the family business returns home with her Dutch boyfriend.
Co-executive producer Shannon Walker is co-founder and festival director of the Lower East Side Film Festival. She has been nominated for two Writers Guild Awards for the comedic web series VICKY & LYSANDER, for which she was also the lead actress and a producer.
Co-executive producer Bonnie Datt is a comedy writer/producer, a fashion blogger, and, in a former life, an award-winning stand-up comic. Datt has served on the Guild’s Council since 2011 and has worked on the Writers Guild Awards in New York since 2009.
Head writer Ann Cohen is a comedy writer and producer in New York. She was head writer and an executive producer for the six-year run of VH1’s BEST WEEK EVER, BEST YEAR EVER and BEST DAY EVER. She served as head writer for the Michael Moore series THE AWFUL TRUTH and was a staff writer on TV NATION. She was a consulting writer on Moore’s health care documentary SICKO and also worked on the CITIZEN KOCH documentary. In addition, Cohen’s other writing credits include time as a staff writer for POLITICALLY INCORRECT WITH BILL MAHER and Comedy Central’s INDECISION WITH AL FRANKEN. She’s been nominated for two Emmy awards and a Writers Guild Award.
The Writers Guild Awards honor outstanding writing in film, television, new media, videogames, news, radio, promotional, and graphic animation categories. The 2018 Writers Guild Awards (70th Annual) will be presented at concurrent ceremonies on Sunday, February 11, 2018, in New York City at the Edison Ballroom and in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton. For more information about the 2018 Writers Guild Awards, please visit www.wgaeast.org or www.wga.org.
For media inquiries about the 2018 WGA New York City show, please contact Jason Gordon in the WGAE Communications Department at (212) 767-7809 or email: jgordon@wgaeast.org.
For media inquiries about the 2018 WGA Los Angeles show, please contact Gregg Mitchell in the WGAW Communications Department at: (323) 782-4651 or email: gmitchell@wga.org.
The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) are labor unions representing writers in motion pictures, television, news and digital media. The Guilds negotiate and administer contracts that protect the creative and economic rights of their members; conduct programs, seminars, and events on issues of interest to writers; and present writers’ views to various bodies of government. For more information on the Writers Guild of America, East, visit www.wgaeast.org. For more information on the Writers Guild of America West, visit www.wga.org.
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