Jessica Williams

Jessica Renee Williams (born July 31, 1989) is an American actress and comedian.

She has appeared as a senior correspondent on The Daily Show, as cohost of the podcast 2 Dope Queens, as Lally Hicks in the Fantastic Beasts film series, as Gaby in Shrinking, and as Meadow in Entergalactic.

Williams was born in Los Angeles County, California.

She attended Nathaniel Narbonne High School where she flourished in the school's drama department.

She made her television debut as a series regular on the Nickelodeon series Just for Kicks in 2006, and in 2012, she became The Daily Show's youngest correspondent ever at 22 years old.

She attended California State University, Long Beach.

Results of a DNA test traced Williams's maternal ancestry to the Bamileke people of Cameroon.

Williams made her Daily Show debut on January 11, 2012.

Williams is a frequent performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles.

Williams also made appearances on Season 3 of HBO's Girls.

She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York and Los Angeles, California.

She appears in the film People Places Things.

She cohosted the comedy podcast 2 Dope Queens with Phoebe Robinson.

She appeared on her last Daily Show episode on June 30, 2016.

She is the star of the 2017 Netflix comedy movie The Incredible Jessica James, in which she portrays a character whom the Guardian described as "a struggling Brooklyn-based playwright navigating the murky waters of modern romance while waiting impatiently for her big break."

She appeared in the sequels of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, titled Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore as Lally Hicks, a teacher from Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

In 2023, Williams had a starring role in the Apple TV+ show Shrinking.

For her performance, she earned a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series nomination.

Williams appears in an HBO special spun off from the podcast in February, 2018.