Career

Bell grew up in Alabama and Chicago, the son of Walter Bell, who served as Alabama's Insurance Commissioner and Chairman of Swiss Re America Holding Corporation, and author Janet Cheatham Bell, who founded a self-publishing firm. Bell graduated from the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and attended the University of Pennsylvania before dropping out. Later he began to pursue a career in comedy.

After establishing himself as sociopolitical comedian and community activist based in San Francisco, Bell became a founding member of the comedy collective "Laughter Against the Machine" and has been featured in a number of prominent podcasts and publications, such as WTF with Marc Maron, Citizen Radio, and Current TV's The War Room with Jennifer Granholm, on which Bell is a regular correspondent.

His first comedy album, One Night Only, was released in 2007. His follow-up album, Face Full of Flour, was released in 2010. The latter named one of the Top 10 Best Comedy Albums of the year by iTunes and Punchline Magazine. In 2012, Bell was voted San Francisco's best comedian by the San Francisco Weekly, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and 7×7 Magazine.

From 2012 to 2013, Bell hosted a weekly stand up comedy television series, Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, first on FX and later on FXX. The show, produced by Chris Rock, provided observational comedy and commentary on social and political issues in addition to celebrity interviews. After the show was cancelled in November 2013, Bell moved back to California from New York.

Since November 2014, Bell has co-hosted the podcast Denzel Washington Is The Greatest Actor Of All Time, Period with comedian Kevin Avery. In addition to reviewing the films of Denzel Washington one by one, the podcast has also featured interviews with prominent actors, filmmakers, musicians, and comedians including Spike Lee, Ava DuVernay, Jesse Williams, Issa Rae, and Ryan Coogler.

He is currently the host of the CNN documentary series United Shades of America, which premiered on April 24, 2016. His first TV special, Semi-Prominent Negro, premiered on Showtime on April 29, 2016.

Bell has co-hosted the podcast The Field Negro Guide to Arts & Culture with Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid, has written the blog "Kamau's Komedy Korner" for the San Francisco Weekly.

Activism

Bell sits on the advisory boards of Race Forward, a racial justice think tank (formerly known as the Applied Research Center), and Hollaback!, an anti-harassment organization. In October 2013, he was named the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador on racial justice.

Racial Incident in 2015

On January 26, 2015, Bell and his wife Melissa were involved in an incident at a cafe in Berkeley, California, which Bell alleged was racially motivated. Bell quickly posted his version of the event online, which sparked a controversy in the media. As a result, a community forum was held and a new initiative was announced to help train local businesses in handling implicit bias. Bell’s account was eventually featured in an episode of the radio series This American Life entitled Birds & Bees. Bell narrated his portion of the episode.

Discography

• 2007: One Night Only
• 2010: Face Full of Flour

[ Source: Wikipedia ]