Ziwe reintroduces herself to former boss and career template Stephen Colbert
The Ziwe host is definitely not stalking The Late Show host
For comedian, podcaster, former The Onion writer (represent), voice-over actress, and now late-night talk show host Ziwe, a first appearance as guest with The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert was like coming home. Not in the sense that she’d ever sat for a celebrity interview (remote or otherwise) with Colbert, but because, as the clearly delighted Colbert rediscovered upon booking Ziwe, his newly minted late-night peer once worked for him as a lowly but ambitious Colbert Report intern.
“At this point, it feels slightly like stalking,” joked Colbert, an assessment that edged more and more into the realm of possibility once he started reading out Ziwe’s career path. Ziwe went to Colbert’s alma mater (Northwestern), where a professor used The Colbert Report’s “Stephen Colbert” character as a comparison to the satirical stylings of Jonathan Swift. Ziwe went on to do improv in Chicago, as Colbert famously and formatively did. Ziwe is currently doing voices on two animated shows (Tooning Out The News and Our Cartoon President) produced by Colbert. And then there’s the little fact that the “Ziwe” of Ziwe is patterned after The Colbert Report”’s egomaniacally self-impressed “Stephen Colbert.” As the real Ziwe put it, “Because I interned at your job, and I saw your face everywhere—it inspired me to create an opening theme song with my face everywhere.” Ziwe called it “an homage” to her former boss’ blowhard character, which is a much nicer word than “stalking.”