Amber Ruffin is an American comedian and writer. she is a writer for the comedy show, Late Night with Seth Meyers. This feat made her the first black woman to ever become a writer in a late-night comedy show. She began working on the series in 2014. Ruffin has appeared on television series such as Key & Peele and Wish It Inc. She earned a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for Best Comedy/Variety Series at the ceremony. 2017 awards ceremony and was chosen to host the same event the following year.
Biography of Amber Ruffin
Amber Ruffin (Amber Mildred Ruffin) was born on January 9, 1979 in Omaha, Nebraska. She was a student at Omaha Benson High School. Ruffin loved the comedy world from a young age, though she cut her teeth on stage in 2001, when she began performing at theaters around her hometown of Omaha.
After playing for a while in front of an Omaha crowd, she decided it was time to up things to gain more skills and professionalism. This line of thought informed him of his move to Chicago and his entry into the iO Theater with the goal of learning and developing his improvisational skills. In 2008, she joined a renowned Chicago comedy troupe known as Boom Chicago on a tour of Amsterdam. She performed there in theaters and on various stages and wrote extensively for the troupe.
Upon returning to the United States, she joined The Second City, a longtime improv comedy troupe, performing several times in Chicago and many more in Denver. It was then that, along with The Second City, she befriended Jenny Hagel, who was also revealed to be a fellow writer on Late Night with Seth Meyers
Not one to rest on his laurels, Ruffin moved to Los Angeles, California, in search of greater opportunities in comedy writing and performance. She ended up joining the Comedy RobotDown team, which specializes in making sketches on YouTube. She soon appeared in an episode of the Peabody Award and several Emmy Award-winning sketch comedy television series, Key & Peele
Her thirst for professional growth led her to audition for a role on the popular comedy TV show, Saturday Night Live in 2014. She didn’t get the role she fought for, but she was offered to become writer for the Late Night with Seth Meyers show by Seth Meyers. She accepted the offer and has since written for the show.
Being a Late Night writer with Seth Meyers opened the door to several opportunities for Amber Ruffin. She is a writer for Detroiters, a Comedy Central show. She also narrates very often for another Comedy Central show known as Drunken History. In 2017, Ruffin was nominated for the Writer Guild of America award in the Best Comedy/Variety Series category.
Husband
Amber Ruffin is married to Jan Schiltmeijer. They have been married since 2010. Ruffin had met Jan Schiltmeijer when she worked for the Boom Chicago troupe in Amsterdam. A romance began soon after they met and eventually culminated in the couple’s wedding in 2010.
Jan Schiltmeijer is an artistic director turned painter. He was born in Haarlem, the Netherlands. He studied and practiced art direction for a few years. He made a career out of painting and has continued to paint ever since. The bulk of his paintings are portraits. After their marriage, he moved to the United States with Amber Ruffin and lives in New York.
Facts to know
- Amber Ruffin has repeatedly told the media that she has no plans to have children.
- She has a news recap segment on the Late Night with Seth Meyers show called Ambers Says What as well as another segment called Jokes Seth Can’t Say and a sketch called Amber’s Night Safe Space
- Her husband, Jan Schiltmeijer, only understood racism and discrimination after he moved with her to the United States.
- In 2017 she created the comedy show Go Dutch but it never saw the light of day because no one commissioned it.
- She was co-writer of Village Gazette, a single-camera comedy series, a pilot of which was commissioned by NBC in 2019.
- In 2014, Amber Ruffin starred as Shari in 14 episodes of the comedy television series Wish It Inc.