Akilah Hughes

Akilah Hughes (born August 31, 1989) is an American writer, comedian, YouTuber and podcaster. She is originally from Northern Kentucky[1] and now resides in Los Angeles. She has been a digital correspondent for MTV, HBO, Fusion, Comedy Central and more. She began her career on a YouTube channel, "It's Akilah, Obviously!", which has amassed more than 150,000 subscribers. In October 2019, her daily news podcast "What a Day" from Crooked Media debuted at number one on the charts.[2]

Akilah Hughes
BornAkilah Hughes
(1989-08-31) August 31, 1989
Kenton County, Kentucky, U.S.
Occupation
  • Comedian
  • Author
  • YouTuber
  • Podcast Host
Alma materBerea College
Years active2006–present
Website
itsakilahobviously.com

Early life and education

Hughes was born in Edgewood, Kentucky and attended Boone County High School in Florence, KY.[1] She attended Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, where she graduated in 2010 with a B.A. in Broadcasting.[3] In 2012, Hughes moved to New York City to pursue comedy. She attended the Upright Citizens Brigade on scholarship.[4]

In 2019, Hughes became a fellow in the founding cohort of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab's Civic Media Fellowship, which is supported in part by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.[5]

Career

YouTube

In 2013, Hughes' YouTube channel "It's Akilah, Obviously!" first went viral with her comedy video titled "Meet Your First Black Girlfriend".[6] In the video, Hughes rapid-fire answers hypothetical questions a white boyfriend might ask her. The video now has nearly 2 million views. Hughes has continued to make comedic videos on her YouTube channel and has amassed more than 150,000 subscribers as of February 2020.

In April 2020, Comedy Central's YouTube channel released three sketches starring Hughes and Milana Vayntrub as part of a new digital sketch series called Making Fun With Akilah and Milana.[7]

Television

In 2018, Hughes appeared in the Dee Rees-directed Samsung commercial that aired first during the 2018 Academy Awards.The spot was created by Wieden & Kennedy Portland and also starred Taika Waititi, Constance Wu, Issa Rae, and more. Produced by Anonymous Content, the commercial celebrated the spirit of independent creators.[8]

During the U.S. midterm elections of 2018, HBO ran a series (produced by A24) of 4 episodes of Crooked Media's Pod Save America throughout October and November. In each episode Hughes played a correspondent in a segment titled Democracy or Else[9] explaining canvassing and other civil actions to take to encourage voting, with guests like Steph Curry, and Chance the Rapper.

Hughes also guest starred on Bob's Burgers Season 10 episode 17 titled "Just the Trip" as Nat's (Jillian Bell) love interest, Theresa. It originally aired March 22, 2020.[10]

Writing

In 2015, Hughes was awarded a fellowship from the Sundance Episodic Story Lab, with a half-hour comedy pilot titled Unlikely, co-written with Lyle Friedman.[11]

On September 24, 2019, Hughes' debut book, Obviously: Stories From My Timeline was published by Penguin Random House.[12] Obviously is a comedic book of essays based on Hughes' journey from growing up in a small Kentucky town to pursuing comedy in New York City.

Hosting

In 2016, Hughes moderated the 2016 Brown & Black Democratic Presidential Forum, which was broadcast live on January 11, 2016. at 8 p.m. ET on Fusion, a joint venture between the Disney-ABC Television Group and Univision Communications.[13] Participating in the event are Democratic hopefuls Hillary Clinton, Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders. The event was co-moderated with Jorge Ramos, Alicia Menendez, and Rembert Browne. The forum focused on five key issues areas including: social justice, the economy, education, healthcare and immigration.[14] The forum was also broadcast on Iowa Public Television on January 13, 2016, at 9 p.m. CT.[15]

In 2017, Hughes hosted the first season of GK Now, a daily culinary news show for Genius Kitchen (now Food.com) for Scripps Network.[16]

In October 2019, "What a Day", a daily news podcast from Crooked Media Hughes and political journalist Gideon Resnick host the show.[17] "What a Day" is released every morning Monday through Friday and covers the biggest news of the day.[18]

Digital IP/Copyright Lawsuit

On Aug 25, 2017, Hughes filed a copyright infringement claim in New York federal court against fellow YouTube content creator Carl Benjamin alleging that he violated fair use principles when he used selections of Hughes's video entitled "We Thought She Would Win"[19] to make his own video entitled "SJW Levels of Awareness"[20] cut and edited from the original work posted by Hughes.[21] The judge ruled that the video met three of the four fair-use standards and dismissed the lawsuit.[22] Benjamin filed a motion dated February 18, 2020 requesting attorney's fees and costs. On March 4, 2020 Hughes opposed the motion.[23]

References
  1. "Boone Co. grad: Rebel pride hard to take". Cincinnati.com. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
  2. "Crooked Media Expands Into Daily Podcasts With 'What a Day'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
  3. "Akilah Hughes". IMDb. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
  4. Escandon, Rosa. "29-Year-Old Akilah Hughes Turned YouTube Into A Career". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
  5. "Celebrating our Founding Fellows". Annenberg Innovation Lab. 2019-08-29. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  6. Nicolaou, Elena. "YouTube Star Akilah Hughes Tells Us How To Be Very Online & Stay Sane". www.refinery29.com. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
  7. Kelly-Clyne, Luke (10 April 2020). "You've Never Seen Patty-Cake Played Like This". Vulture. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  8. "Samsung Taps Molly Burke, Akilah Hughes, More YouTubers For Oscars Spot". Tubefilter. 2018-03-05. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  9. "Chance the Rapper, Steph Curry and Akilah Hughes want you to vote". The FADER. Retrieved 2020-03-19.
  10. Just the Trip, retrieved 2020-03-23
  11. Petski, Denise (2015-09-22). "Sundance Institute Announces 2015 Episodic Story Lab Projects". Deadline. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  12. "Akilah Hughes on telling 'Stories From My Timeline' in upcoming book 'Obviously'". EW.com. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
  13. "Fusion to Host Its First Primary Forum". adweek.it. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  14. Robinson, Judah (2015-12-17). "Fusion Announces Moderators Of 'Brown & Black' Presidential Forum". HuffPost. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  15. "Iowa PBS".
  16. Spangler, Todd (2017-09-19). "Scripps Networks Launches 'Genius Kitchen' Online Food Network, Folding Food.com Recipes Into the Mix". Variety. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  17. "Akilah Hughes and Gideon Resnick Host What A Day from Crooked Media". www.tubefilter.com. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
  18. Dudley, Joshua. "Meet Akilah Hughes: The Daily News Podcast Host Who Makes You Feel Good About Your Day". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
  19. We Thought She Would Win | Akilah Obviously, retrieved 2020-02-27
  20. SJW Levels of Awareness, retrieved 2020-02-27
  21. "Hughes v. Benjamin Document #1 District Court, S.D. New York Docket Number: 1:17-cv-06493 Filed: August 25th, 2017". courtlistener.com. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
  22. "Hughes v. Benjamin Document #39, District Court, S.D. New York, Docket Number: 1:17-cv-06493 Filed: February 3rd, 2020". courtlistener.com. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
  23. "Reclaim the Net: Follow Up on Hughes v. Benjamin". courtlistener.com. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.