Quinta Brunson
Named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People and dubbed “the new queen of sitcoms” by New York Magazine, Emmy®, SAG and Golden Globe® Award-winning actor, producer, writer and creator Quinta Brunson has quickly made a name for herself as a powerful force and game changer within the entertainment industry.
Brunson is the creator/showrunner, head writer and executive producer of the acclaimed series “Abbott Elementary.” The show, inspired by Brunson’s mother, follows a group of dedicated, passionate teachers brought together in a Philadelphia public school where, despite the odds stacked against them, are determined to help their students succeed in life.
Since its launch, “Abbott Elementary” has garnered a slew of awards season wins and nominations, with Brunson personally making history as the first Black woman to receive three Emmy nominations and the second Black woman to win an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for her Peabody Award-winning series. Additionally, Brunson landed individual nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the Emmy Awards (2025), the Critics Choice Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series (2025), Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series, Musical or Comedy (2025), a NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series (2025) and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series (2025). Some recent notable highlights include winning her second Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (2023), winning a Golden Globe award for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series, Musical, or Comedy (2023), and winning her first Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series (2023). She has also received yearly nominations from the Writers Guild Awards in their comedy series category (2023-2025). Aside from winning a Peabody Award, “Abbott Elementary” was an honoree at the 2023 and 2024 AFI Awards for Outstanding Television Program of the Year (to name a few).
In film, Brunson appeared as Oprah Winfrey in the award-winning feature “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” alongside Daniel Radcliff. It won Outstanding Television Movie at the 2023 Primetime Emmy Awards and Best Movie Made for Television at the Critics Choice Awards. She will also soon appear in Disney’s highly anticipated “Zootopia 2” as Dr. Fuzzby.
Originally from Philadelphia, Brunson started her entertainment journey at The Second City in Chicago and burst onto the scene in 2014 when the series she created, “The Girl Who’s Never Been on a Nice Date,” went viral. Brunson’s digital success quickly attracted the attention of BuzzFeed, where she landed an initial job as a video producer. She went on to sell two web series as a development partner with BuzzFeed Motion Pictures: the scripted comedy “Broke” (which she wrote, produced, and starred in) for YouTube Red and “Up for Adoption,” which was produced by Verizon’s go90. Since leaving BuzzFeed in 2018, Brunson’s career as a multihyphenate actor and creator in Hollywood has skyrocketed. She landed a lead role in The CW pilot “The End of the World as We Know It”; she wrote, produced, and starred in the series “Quinta vs. Everything” for Facebook Watch; and wrote/sold a multicam comedy pilot alongside Larry Wilmore and Jermaine Fowler for CBS with then ABC Studios. Brunson has also lent her voice to a plethora of projects, including Adult Swim’s “Lazor Wulf” (where she is also a staff writer) and Netflix’s “Big Mouth.”
On the sketch comedy front, Brunson starred on the first season of HBO’s award-winning series “A Black Lady Sketch Show” and was nominated for a 2023 Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her episode of “Saturday Night Live” on NBC. As an author Brunson released her bestselling debut novel, “She Memes Well” (HMH Books), in June 2021.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
HOMETOWN: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
BIRTHDATE: December 21
