Amber Ruffin and Robin Thede Discuss Representation in Late-Night and Sketch Comedy
Danielle Turchiano Senior Features Editor, TVAmber Ruffin and Robin Thede go way back.The writers, producers and performers entered late-night TV around the same time (Ruffin in 2014 on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” and Thede the following year on “The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore”). Before that, they’d each other for years, previously appearing together at improv shows where they would act out “lost” (aka fake) “227” episodes live.Ruffin ended up writing on the first season of Thede’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show” in 2019, but now the long-time friends are blazing individual trails in the late-night sketch comedy space.