Quinta Brunson

Quinta Brunson (born December 21, 1989, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.) is an American actress, writer, and producer known for creating the comedy series Abbott Elementary (2021– ) on ABC, in which she stars as the dedicated, optimistic elementary school teacher Janine Teagues.

Early life and education

Brunson, the fifth and youngest child of Norma Jean and Rick Brunson, grew up in West Philly (as locals call it). Her mother taught kindergarten and her father managed parking lots. Brunson was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, but she left the church when she was 21. As a child she participated in gymnastics and dance classes. Her interest in comedy began at age three, when she began imitating television characters for her elder siblings. Brunson told Glamour in 2023, “I was just passionate about making people laugh! It brought me such joy. It really connected me to my siblings.”

After graduating from Philadelphia’s Charter High School of Architecture and Design, Brunson enrolled at Temple University. She practiced improvisational comedy and, heeding her mother’s assertion that show business was too “worldly,” studied communications. While in school, she traveled to Chicago for an improv course and then a sketch-writing workshop at the Second City, a comedy institution. In 2013 Brunson decided to leave college to pursue a comedy career in Los Angeles.

Early comedy career

There Brunson joined a local improv comedy group and worked at an Apple Store. In 2014, while performing stand-up at the Comedy Store, she debuted her character the “Girl Who’s Never Been on a Nice Date.” The character was a hit, and, urged by her friends, Brunson recorded several short video clips of herself in character and posted them on Instagram, where she rapidly amassed a following.

That same year Brunson’s friend Justin Tan, a comedian who had a fellowship at BuzzFeed, asked her to participate in one of his videos for the company’s YouTube channel. From there Brunson talked her way into a fellowship of her own at the media company. She continued to feature on the YouTube channel, and by 2015 BuzzFeed had promoted her to junior producer. In subsequent years, Brunson created a few BuzzFeed-produced short comedy series, including Broke (2016), which follows three young Philadelphians who find happiness and friendship in Los Angeles while trying to make ends meet financially, and Quinta vs. Everything (2017–18), wherein she played a young woman learning to manage contemporary expectations such as drinking enough water and taking a selfie.

After leaving BuzzFeed in 2018, Brunson guest starred on such TV series as New Girl in 2018, iZombie in 2019, and Single Parents between 2018 and 2020. She also wrote and acted in the first season (2019) of HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show.

Abbott Elementary

Brunson next created Abbott Elementary, which premiered in 2021 and was largely inspired by her mother’s 40-year teaching career. In the style of hit American sitcoms The Office and Parks and Recreation, Abbott Elementary is a workplace mockumentary; it follows a group of dedicated teachers at a predominantly Black elementary school in Philadelphia. The show became overwhelmingly successful, garnering Brunson an Emmy Award in 2022 for outstanding writing for a comedy series and one in 2023 for outstanding lead actress in a comedy series. She was the first Black actress to win the latter category in more than four decades (the last time was in 1981 when The Jeffersons star Isabel Sanford won). In addition, Brunson received a Golden Globe in 2023 for best performance by an actress in a musical or comedy television series.

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Other projects

While continuing to work on Abbott Elementary, Brunson played Oprah Winfrey in the movie Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022), guest starred on the reboot of the TV series Party Down (2023), and appeared as Martha Magdalene in the sequel (2023) to the movie History of the World (1981). She married boyfriend Kevin Jay Anik in 2021.