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The Hollywood Reporter launches first comedy power list

By Instep Desk
Tue, 06, 18

It is no longer just drama that has the people’s attention. Comedy has seen a big boost, particularly in the age of streaming. In what is its first comedy power list,

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Judd Apatow, Kumail Nanjiani, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tina Fey and Donald Glover among honorees.


It is no longer just drama that has the people’s attention. Comedy has seen a big boost, particularly in the age of streaming. In what is its first comedy power list, The Hollywood Reporter (THR) has profiled nearly 40 people who, as the publication notes, are “the stand-ups scoring $20 million Netflix specials and the ventriloquist booking arenas”.

Though the list contains nearly 40 names, chief among them are names like Judd Apatow, Dave Chappelle, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tina Fey and Donald Glover.

Apatow, who has comedies like Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin to his name said on the matter, “There is such an explosion of TV comedy that it’s siphoning off good writers who used to write screenplays. You never open up the trades and hear about a comedy sale. It’s become a foregone conclusion that people think the market is disappearing for this.”

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the star of hit comedy series Veep, also made the list and rightly so having won eight Emmys, with six for her role in Veep.

Kumail Nanjiani also earned a spot on the comedy power list. Noted THR about Nanjiani, “The 40-year-old Pakistan-born comic actor has been wearing lots of tuxedos lately. His 2017 film The Big Sick, which he co-wrote with wife Emily V. Gordon, earned him an Oscar nomination last year for best original screenplay (and grossed $56 million worldwide), while his Emmy winning HBO show, Silicon Valley, wrapped up its fifth season. He also made his Saturday Night Live hosting debut in October and has been landing large parts in big-budget movies alongside major stars, like Voyage of Doctor Dolittle at Universal, in which he’ll be acting opposite Marion Cotillard, Ralph Fiennes and Robert Downey Jr.”

Also on the list is Tina Fey, actor, writer and producer, who is the creator of 30 Rock and also the executive producer of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which will end after a four-year run. But Fey is far from done. She is set to appear in Amy Poehler’s Netflix project, Wine Country.

Donald Glover, actor, comic, producer and writer also made the cut. He has been a writer on 30 Rock, starred on Community and created Atlanta. The latter earned him best comedy actor and director at Emmys 2017 while his alter music ego Childish Gambino racked up 30 million views for the video of ‘This is America’.

Set to appear in the third season of Atlanta as well as voicing Simba in Disney’s Lion King, he says of picking projects: “How do you know what people want? Because I want to feel it.”

Many others made the list as well including Adam Sandler, Amy Schumer, Jerry Seinfeld, Kevin Hart, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, James Corden, Samantha Bee, Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Kimmel, Bill Maher, Trevor Noah, Conan O’Brien, Seth MacFarlane and Melissa McCarthy.

–With information from The Hollywood Reporter