American comedian, writer and actor, and Black Lives Matter activist Dewayne Perkins has been chosen as one of Variety’s 10 Comics to Watch in 2020 and a Breakout LGBQT Comedian to Watch by TimeOut New York. His hilarious stand-up has featured on Comedy Central, LOGO and Netflix, and he has appeared at festivals and on Comedy Stages all over the USA. He has written for The Break with Michelle Wolf and NBC’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and is now a staff writer for the popular Late Night chat show, The Amber Ruffin Show, and the Saved By the Bell reboot. He has also recently starred in the hilarious sitcom, The Upshaws.

Born and raised in Chicago, Perkins was the first African American male student to receive an International Baccalaureate Diploma from his high school. He attended the DePaul University in Chicago after gaining admittance to the Acting Conservatory, and then changed his major to film and animation. While at University, he was introduced to The Second City, the renowned improvisational comedy enterprise, by his best friend and writing partner, Aasia Lashay Bullock. He left Second City in 2017 to pursue stand-up, covering issues of identity such as race and sexuality. One of his most loved sketches, The Blackening – about an all-Black group of friends (who ain’t got no business camping) being chased by a serial killer – is being adapted into a feature film, co-written with Tracy Oliver.

Perkins keeps his legions of followers in stitches with his regular posts on Instagram and Twitter, as well as through his own website, dewayneperkins.com