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Quinta Brunson

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Quinta Brunson

Quinta Brunson (/ˈkwɪntə/; born December 21, 1989) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer. She is the creator, executive producer and co-writer of the ABC comedy series Abbott Elementary (2021–present), in which she stars as second-grade teacher Janine Teagues. Brunson gained prominence in 2014 for her self-produced Instagram series Girl Who Has Never Been on a Nice Date. She went on to produce and act in videos for BuzzFeed Video and developed two streaming series with BuzzFeed Motion Pictures.

At the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards, she became the first Black woman to be nominated three times in the comedy category, receiving nominations for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series (which she won), Outstanding Comedy Series (as an executive producer), and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. At the 75th ceremony, she became the first Black woman to win Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy in over 40 years. Brunson was honored with a 2022 Peabody Award for her work on Abbott Elementary. She was also placed on the Time 100 Most Influential People of 2022 list.

Brunson has acted in the series iZombie, Single Parents, and Miracle Workers; provided voice work for Lazor Wulf and Magical Girl Friendship Squad; and starred in the first season of the HBO sketch comedy series A Black Lady Sketch Show.

Brunson was born and raised in West Philadelphia. She attended Harrity Elementary School in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood. Her name means "fifth" in Spanish and signifies that she is the youngest of five children. Her mother, Norma Jean, taught kindergarten and her father, Rick, managed parking lots. She was raised as one of Jehovah's Witnesses but left the religion when she was 21.

She has described herself as "obsessed" with comedy from the time she attended the Charter High School for Architecture & Design in Philadelphia, and nurtured her interest by taking an improv class. Brunson attended Temple University and took classes at Second City in Chicago her sophomore year. She dropped out of school shortly thereafter to move to Los Angeles and pursue a career in comedy. She received an honorary degree in Fine Arts from Temple University in 2024.

Brunson originally garnered fans online by posting comedic videos to her Instagram in 2014. In particular, her Girl Who Has Never Been on a Nice Date series went viral and grew her digital fan base. She then worked as a video producer for BuzzFeed Video after first freelancing for the company. Her videos primarily focused on problems experienced by twenty-somethings.

In 2016, Brunson sold two web series as a development partner with BuzzFeed Motion Pictures: one scripted comedy called Broke for YouTube Red, which she wrote, produced, and starred in; the second, Up for Adoption, was produced by Verizon's go90 video platform, which she also starred in. Brunson's performance in Broke was nominated for Best Acting in a Comedy at the Streamy Awards in 2017.

Shortly after Brunson left BuzzFeed in 2018, she co-starred in her first network pilot, the CW pilot The End of the World as We Know It, but the show was not picked up by the network. She also wrote and produced a series called Quinta vs. Everything that streamed on Facebook Watch from 2017 to 2018. On October 4, 2018, it was announced that a pilot co-produced by Brunson, Larry Wilmore, and Jermaine Fowler would be developed by CBS into a multi-cam comedy called Quinta & Jermaine. The pilot would star Fowler and Brunson as longtime friends who must deal with an unplanned pregnancy; however, the show was not picked up.

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