Late-night audiences and YouTube connoisseurs have long been laughing at Lisa from Temecula as she wrestles a piece of overcooked steak, chuckling at Ms. Veronda, the rich auntie with no kids and no stress, and singing along with a poor COVID shut-in hallucinating a friendship with Reggie the houseplant as she slowly goes “loco” from a yearlong isolation. But funny woman Ego Nwodim, now entering her Leading Lady Era, is currently lending her many talents to Peacock’s Mr. Throwback, in which the Saturday Night Live alum brings her flair for comedy to a new series.
A natural in front of the camera, Nwodim wasn’t entirely convinced at first that she was funny. Growing up, it was more about making her mom laugh than nabbing the spotlight.
“I used to mimic my mom a lot. And she and her sisters, frankly. But [mostly] my mom. I would mimic her a lot. And she would mimic me back. We had a good time.”
It wasn’t until Nwodim received praise from a stranger who was looking to save a little money on rent that the comedian was set on her path.
“I was in my 20s and a girl named Rose had come to live with me and my sister. And she…Rose sort of took to me. There were three others in the house. And I was like, it is so strange that Rose took to me in this way; I wonder why that is,” recalled the Baltimore native.
“One day Rose just came out and said, ‘You are so funny.” And I was like, ‘Oh, is that what that is? I just think I’m weird.’ I thought everyone was weird, but I wouldn’t have labeled it funny until Rose said that. Our sweet subletter from Arizona.”
Thanks to that observant renter, Nwodim’s fate was set, but even then, she needed a bit of convincing to prove that comedy was her right for her.
“I started down that path begrudgingly [because] of improv and sketch, but once I started, what kept me going is that I loved it so much. It was the most ‘me’ thing I felt I had done to date in terms of my pursuit of acting in television and film.
“So improv felt like home. And sketch [comedy] felt like home as well. And somehow, when I was portraying other characters, I felt like myself doing it.”
Finding herself paid off. Since 2018, Nwodim has beguiled late-night viewers of Saturday Night Live with her standout impressions of celebrities like Dionne Warwick and Jada Pinkett Smith, as well as a roster of iconic original characters. She quickly rose to prominence as the SNL fan base placed her on a pedestal thanks to her commitment to the absurdity of each sketch. From making Pedro Pascal break character to portraying “a Black woman who’s been missing for 10 years” giving news agencies a tongue lashing for using a picture of her that she describes as “Old Dirty Bastard’s dirtier sister,” Nwodim quickly proved her mettle.
“Our audience and fans are so lovely. I’m really grateful for the SNL audience, which has embraced the work that I do.”
And they aren’t the only ones to embrace her. Earlier this year Nwodim was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series by the NAACP Image Awards. A past Variety Comedy Impact honoree, Nwodim continued to add to her résumé with roles in HBO Max’s Love Life, Hulu‘s Shrill, Apple TV’s Roar, and IFC’s Brockmire, as well as indie films like Spin Me Round and Scrambled.
Recently, Nwodim has shifted gears with Peacock’s Mr. Throwback. She stars in the mockumentary-style comedy that takes aim at the sports industry in the same way that NBC’s Parks and Recreation targeted local government. She appears alongside NBA legend and Olympic gold medalist Stephen Curry and Adam Pally.
“My manager sent me the script of the pilot and I read it, and it was so funny on the page. I was like, ‘I want to be a part of this. If there is any part for me in this show, I would happily, gladly do it.”
“It’s not what I expected when it was described to me by my manager. And I think audiences are finding that as well,”
“I play Kimberly Gregg, who is based on Tiffany Williams, who is Stephen Curry’s real-life right-hand woman,” said Nwodim. “She makes sure all the plates are spinning the way they are supposed to be in Steph’s life. All signs point to Tiffany. Behind every successful man there is a super-organized woman, and that is Kimberly Gregg, akaTiffany in real life.”
“Tiffany is phenomenal. I met her at a conference in Ojai, and as soon as I met her, it was like that Spider-Man meme: ‘I’m you! You’re me!’ I didn’t meet her until we were well into shooting and only had one week left. But she and I, in real life, shared a lot of similarities, which was cool, because I felt I really understood Kimberly, the character, right off the bat.
“I just felt I knew and understood who she was. She works in this really fast-paced male-dominated industry and I think that’s really cool, and a bunch of that overlaps with my experience too. I completely got [who] the character was right away.”
Luckily, the shift from not-ready-for-primetime player to actor in a faux documentary was a transition the multihyphenate could handle.
“It’s a completely different beast [working on] Mr. Throwback [compared to] Saturday Night Live in that it’s a scripted series. If you mess up, you get another take. If you don’t like what you did in a previous take, you get to go, ‘Oh, I want to do that again.’ So that’s been really cool and liberating in that sense.
“And you get to sort of collaborate with the director and your fellow performers on that front and be like, ‘Oh, this is what it looks like on its feet.’”
As Nwodim finds more mediums in which to shine, she continues to bring even more memorable personas to life. Be it Kimberly Gregg or Ms. Veronda, Nwodim continues to put her indelible mark on every character she creates, each more hilarious than the next.
Mr. Throwback is available for streaming now on Peacock. Binge it now.
Top Image: Rosalind-O’Connor-NBC
