Nicole Byer

Nicole Byer (born August 29, 1986) is an American comedian, actress, and television host.

Byer was born and raised in New Jersey and moved to New York City in the early 2000s.

She worked there as a waitress for a restaurant and cabaret club.

She described how the experience eventually led to her to studying improv, "They would give me a lot of money because they were like, 'You're very funny. You have to get out of here. You're very bad at this [waiting tables].'" Byer's parents both died when she was young, her mother while Nicole was a teen in high school, and her father when she was 21.

She has said that comedy helped her work through both her parents' deaths, "it was a blessing that I had found these things before they passed away so I could escape."

She then took classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade, starting improv and sketch comedy in June 2008, the same month that her father died.

She made several guest appearances in such comedy series as 30 Rock (2012), Family Guy (2016), Transparent (2016–2017), The Good Place (2019), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2019–2021), and The Simpsons (2019).

Byer gained recognition for her work in the commentary series Girl Code (2013).

She continued with improv and sketch comedy before starting her stand-up career in 2013.

Byer graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy Certificate Program in Professional Performance.

She tours the United States doing stand-up comedy and regularly performs improv with Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles.

Byer began appearing on Girl Code on MTV in 2013.

In 2014, she hosted the first season of MTV's ''Are You the One?

The Aftermatch Live, an after-show for Are You the One?''.

Byer later starred in the MTV/Facebook Watch comedy series Loosely Exactly Nicole (2016–2018), which was based on her real life experiences.

She also appeared in films, including Other People (2016), All About Nina (2018), Bad Hair (2020), and Valley Girl (2020).

In 2021, Byer began co-hosting Wipeout with John Cena.

Byer is the host of the Team Coco podcast Why Won't You Date Me?, the Earwolf podcast Best Friends co-hosted with Sasheer Zamata, and the Headgum podcast Newcomers.

Byer's first full-length special, Nicole Byer: BBW (Big Beautiful Weirdo), premiered on Netflix in December 2021 and earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special.

She appeared in several roles on network television in 2016.

That year, she had supporting roles on three shows: MTV's commentary show Girl Code; a hidden camera prank show Ladylike, also on MTV; and she was a series regular on the Fox show Party Over Here, a half-hour sketch comedy created by Paul Scheer and Lonely Island, which was cancelled after one season.

As a commentator on the show Girl Code, she was described by Maitri Mehta at Bustle as a "beloved talking head"; Stephanie Merry at The Washington Post called Byer "one of the most dependably funny commentators" on the show.

Byer has guest-starred in several shows including BoJack Horseman, Transparent, and Bob's Burgers.

In 2016, MTV premiered Loosely Exactly Nicole, a scripted, single-camera comedy written and starring Byer, based on her life.

Madeleine Davies at Jezebel described the show's premise as a "comedic look on [Byer's] life as a black actress struggling to make it in Hollywood."

Loosely Exactly Nicole premiered September 5, 2016 on MTV.

It was later cancelled after one season.

Shortly after, it was picked up by Facebook Watch for a second season.

Byer co-hosts the latest version of Wipeout with John Cena on TBS.

Byer is the host of four podcasts: Why Won't You Date Me?, Best Friends!, 90 Day Bae, and Newcomers.

She played Lizette in season 5, episode 7 of the Freeform series Young & Hungry in 2017.

She appeared as a guest judge on the third season of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars.

In December 2017, Byer launched a weekly podcast Why Won't You Date Me? on the HeadGum podcast network.

She is known as the host of the Netflix comedic reality bake-off series Nailed It! (2018–present), for which she received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

Since March 2018, Byer has hosted the Netflix original bake-off series Nailed It! alongside head judge chocolatier Jacques Torres.

Each episode features three home bakers with a "terrible track record" attempting to recreate extremely complicated pastries for a $10,000 prize.

Byer received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program four times (2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023).

She is the first Black woman to be nominated in the category.

Because her comedy is "not kid-friendly", her commentary is edited to create the "feel-good G-rated comedy" that the show is known for.

An entire season is shot in only 13 days.