# Jerrod Carmichael
**Jerrod Carmichael** is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and filmmaker from [Winston-Salem, North Carolina](https://www.edgepedia.org/winston-salem-north-carolina), known for confessional comedy that turns his own family history, sexuality, and relationships into the subject of his work. He created and starred in the NBC sitcom *The Carmichael Show*, won a Primetime Emmy Award for writing his 2022 HBO special *Rothaniel*, in which he came out as gay, and later turned his private life into the eight-part HBO series *Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show*.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jerrod-carmichael) • [2](https://time.com/6960476/jerrod-carmichael-reality-show-review/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Origin | Born April 4 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; later based in Los Angeles as a working stand-up comedian[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jerrod-carmichael) • [3](https://www.laughfactory.com/comedians/bio/JerrodCarmichael) |
| Breakthrough sitcom | *The Carmichael Show*, NBC, 2015–2017, a semiautobiographical family comedy built on topical arguments[4](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/emmys/la-et-st-jerrod-carmichael-carmichael-show-20170606-story.html) |
| HBO specials | *Love at the Store* (2014, directed by Spike Lee), *8* (2017, directed by Bo Burnham), *Rothaniel* (2022), *Don't Be Gay* (2025)[3](https://www.laughfactory.com/comedians/bio/JerrodCarmichael) • [5](https://press.wbd.com/na/property/jerrod-carmichaels-dont-be-gay) |
| Emmy win | Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special, 74th Emmy Awards, for *Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel*[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jerrod-carmichael) |
| Coming out | Came out as gay in *Rothaniel*, where he also revealed that his real first name is Rothaniel and Jerrod is his middle name[6](https://time.com/6175659/jerrod-carmichael-interview-rothaniel/) |
| Film directing | *On the Count of Three* (2022), a dark comedy about a suicide pact, starring Carmichael as Val opposite Christopher Abbott[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/05/13/jerrod-carmichael-rothaniel-count-of-three-interview/) |
| Other hosting | Host of the 80th Golden Globe Awards, January 2023[8](https://time.com/6246401/jerrod-carmichael-golden-globes-monologue-transcript/) |
## Beginnings in stand-up
Carmichael moved to Los Angeles and broke into stand-up through open mic nights, becoming a regular at clubs including the Comedy Store, the Improv, and the Laugh Factory.[9](https://www.howardstern.com/news/2022/04/27/video-jerrod-carmichael-talks-comedy-pornography-and-why-he-came-out-on-stage/) • [3](https://www.laughfactory.com/comedians/bio/JerrodCarmichael) In a 2013 poll the Laugh Factory conducted among Los Angeles bookers and hosts, he ranked first among up-and-coming stand-ups, and he was featured in Variety as one of the top ten comics to watch and as one of the New Faces at the Montreal Just For Laughs festival.[3](https://www.laughfactory.com/comedians/bio/JerrodCarmichael)
His first hour, *Jerrod Carmichael: Love at the Store*, aired on HBO in 2014. It was filmed at the Comedy Store, produced by Funny Or Die, and directed by [Spike Lee](https://www.edgepedia.org/spike-lee), for whom it was the second stand-up concert film after *The Original Kings of Comedy*.[3](https://www.laughfactory.com/comedians/bio/JerrodCarmichael) That year he also appeared in the [Nicholas Stoller](https://www.edgepedia.org/nicholas-stoller) film *Neighbors*, opposite [Seth Rogen](https://www.edgepedia.org/seth-rogen) and Zac Efron.[3](https://www.laughfactory.com/comedians/bio/JerrodCarmichael)
## The Carmichael Show
From 2015 to 2017 Carmichael starred in *The Carmichael Show*, a semiautobiographical NBC sitcom he also executive produced and wrote.[3](https://www.laughfactory.com/comedians/bio/JerrodCarmichael) • [4](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/emmys/la-et-st-jerrod-carmichael-carmichael-show-20170606-story.html) The show deliberately used an old-fashioned format, with a living-room set, a laugh track, and issue-of-the-week plots in the tradition of *All in the Family*, while taking on subjects such as the N-word, assisted suicide, depression, and the [Bill Cosby](https://www.edgepedia.org/bill-cosby) scandal from an African American perspective.[4](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/emmys/la-et-st-jerrod-carmichael-carmichael-show-20170606-story.html) • [10](https://time.com/4319136/review-the-carmichael-show/) Each episode followed a formula in which the parents, played by [Loretta Devine](https://www.edgepedia.org/loretta-devine) and [David Alan Grier](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-alan-grier), voiced an older generation's view of a news story while Jerrod's girlfriend Maxine, played by Amber Stevens West, argued a younger position.[10](https://time.com/4319136/review-the-carmichael-show/) Time's review placed the show against a trend of experimental TV comedy, arguing that its deliberately retro structure was what let it put the two generations into real conversation.[10](https://time.com/4319136/review-the-carmichael-show/)
## Rothaniel and coming out
**The turning point** came with *Rothaniel*, an HBO special directed by [Bo Burnham](https://www.edgepedia.org/bo-burnham) and performed before a live audience at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York, released in 2022.[11](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jerrod_carmichael_rothaniel) In it, Carmichael delved into his family's history of secret-keeping before revealing long-held secrets of his own: that he is gay, and that his real first name is Rothaniel, with Jerrod his middle name.[6](https://time.com/6175659/jerrod-carmichael-interview-rothaniel/) Instead of polished jokes, he offered earnest reflection, expressed genuine confusion, and had spontaneous conversations with the audience; he told the crowd that at many points in his life he thought he would rather die than confront the truth.[2](https://time.com/6960476/jerrod-carmichael-reality-show-review/) • [7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/05/13/jerrod-carmichael-rothaniel-count-of-three-interview/)
Critics received the special as a new form rather than a conventional stand-up hour. Metacritic recorded a score of 94, its "Universal Acclaim" band, with six positive reviews and none mixed or negative, and Rotten Tomatoes listed a 100% Tomatometer from 18 reviews.[12](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/jerrod-carmichael-rothaniel/critic-reviews/) • [11](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jerrod_carmichael_rothaniel) Its critics' consensus called it not conventionally funny but captivating on the strength of Carmichael's candor and storytelling.[11](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jerrod_carmichael_rothaniel) At the 74th [Emmy Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/emmy-awards) it won Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special, and Carmichael was separately nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for hosting *Saturday Night Live* in April 2022.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jerrod-carmichael)
Carmichael described the period as turbulent. In the *TIME* interview he said he had grown tired of performing and had felt at the end of his rope, and that after coming out he began to feel a responsibility he had never attached to his work.[6](https://time.com/6175659/jerrod-carmichael-interview-rothaniel/) He also described his mother's devout Christianity as the wall between them, saying she had to cross-reference his being gay against her religion.[6](https://time.com/6175659/jerrod-carmichael-interview-rothaniel/)
## Film and earlier documentary work
Carmichael's directorial film debut, *On the Count of Three*, was released in May 2022, days after *Rothaniel*. The dark comedy follows longtime friends Kevin, played by [Christopher Abbott](https://www.edgepedia.org/christopher-abbott), and Val, played by Carmichael, who make a suicide pact and spend the rest of the day tying up loose ends.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/05/13/jerrod-carmichael-rothaniel-count-of-three-interview/) He told the Los Angeles Times that the film balances gallows humor with emotional truth, and told *TIME* that the power of art is to explore rich subject matter like suicide as long as it is done with integrity.[13](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-05-13/jerrod-carmichael-on-the-count-of-three-rothaniel) • [6](https://time.com/6175659/jerrod-carmichael-interview-rothaniel/)
The movement toward autobiography had started earlier. In 2019 he made two documentaries for HBO, *Home Videos* and *Sermon on the Mount*, returning to North Carolina to film interviews with his family and friends.[14](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/why-jerrod-carmichael-turned-his-life-into-a-reality-show) In a second HBO hour, *8*, directed by Burnham and released in 2017, he described his own approach as closer to giving a speech, laying out contrarian views on family and the environment.[15](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/dont-be-gay-is-the-next-chapter-in-the-evolution-of-jerrod-carmichael)
## Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show
*Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show*, an eight-part HBO series co-created by Carmichael, premiered on March 29, 2024. It continues his experiment in radical honesty while being frank about its own construction: the series shows him producing scenes as the camera rolls, persuading family and friends to discuss hard topics while crew members swarm, and intercutting the footage with his stand-up monologues and meta-discussions about how scenes play.[2](https://time.com/6960476/jerrod-carmichael-reality-show-review/) • [16](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/2024/03/29/jerrod-carmichael-reality-show-review/)
The premiere episodes stage some of the series' hardest conversations: Carmichael confronts his best friend, the rapper [Tyler, the Creator](https://www.edgepedia.org/tyler-the-creator), about avoiding him since Carmichael confessed to being in love with him; he tries to talk with his father about the older man's infidelity, a pattern he sees mirrored in his own cheating on his first serious boyfriend; and he records his mother saying she loves him just the way he is while also implying that being gay is like being a murderer.[2](https://time.com/6960476/jerrod-carmichael-reality-show-review/) Reviewers noted the ethics of the enterprise. The Washington Post called it a riveting but selective and thoroughly artificial structure that mostly abandons total transparency, and [The New Yorker](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-new-yorker) described the series as living at the intersection of documentary and reality television while calling it ethically dubious.[16](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/2024/03/29/jerrod-carmichael-reality-show-review/) • [17](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/jerrod-carmichael-finds-the-outer-limits-of-confessional-comedy) An anonymous, digitally disguised friend in the first episode, whose speech pattern comedy obsessives recognized as that of Bo Burnham, objects on camera that "this is not a neutral eye," whether the camera's, Carmichael's, or the viewer's.[18](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/newsletter/2024-05-17/jerrod-carmichael-reality-show-max-screen-gab) • [19](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2024-04-05/5-truths-we-learn-about-jerrod-carmichael-in-his-new-reality-show)
## Later work and public profile
In January 2023 Carmichael hosted the 80th [Golden Globe Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-globe-awards). He opened by telling the audience he had been hired "because I am Black," noting that the [Hollywood Foreign Press Association](https://www.edgepedia.org/hollywood-foreign-press-association) had not had a single Black member until [George Floyd](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-floyd) died, and his monologue and later jokes, including a dig at Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology, drew both laughs and criticism.[8](https://time.com/6246401/jerrod-carmichael-golden-globes-monologue-transcript/) • [20](https://apnews.com/article/9d40c00cda5775053e7eb3da75f521e4)
His fourth HBO stand-up special, *Don't Be Gay*, debuted on May 24, 2025, his first special since *Rothaniel*.[5](https://press.wbd.com/na/property/jerrod-carmichaels-dont-be-gay) • [15](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/dont-be-gay-is-the-next-chapter-in-the-evolution-of-jerrod-carmichael) He told PBS's *Amanpour and Company* that it is an hour of traditional stand-up, an update on someone in a relationship figuring out what to do with aging parents, and that the title comes from the internal monologue he grew up with: raised straight, he said, you know there is only one role, don't be gay, and he broke that role.[21](https://www.pbs.org/video/jerrod-carmichael-on-love-sex-honesty-and-his-special-dont-be-gay-lf8z0a/)
Critics have traced a consistent arc across the work: from the argument-driven sitcom, through the documentaries and *Rothaniel*, to a reality series about the ethics of confession itself. What unites them is the question The New Yorker framed as the heart of the series: whether the point of comedy is to make people laugh or to excavate your demons, a question Carmichael's work poses repeatedly without settling it.[17](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/jerrod-carmichael-finds-the-outer-limits-of-confessional-comedy)
## References
1. [Jerrod Carmichael, Television Academy biography and Emmy record](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jerrod-carmichael)
2. [Judy Berman, "'Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show' Makes Reality TV—Hilariously, Painfully—Real Again," TIME, March 26, 2024](https://time.com/6960476/jerrod-carmichael-reality-show-review/)
3. [Jerrod Carmichael biography, Laugh Factory](https://www.laughfactory.com/comedians/bio/JerrodCarmichael)
4. ["Jerrod Carmichael doesn't want his comedy to get 'swept up in a hashtag'," Los Angeles Times, 2017](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/emmys/la-et-st-jerrod-carmichael-carmichael-show-20170606-story.html)
5. [DON'T BE GAY press release, Warner Bros. Discovery Pressroom](https://press.wbd.com/na/property/jerrod-carmichaels-dont-be-gay)
6. [Andrew R. Chow, "Jerrod Carmichael Revealed His Secrets in Rothaniel. Now He's Tackling New Ground," TIME, May 13, 2022](https://time.com/6175659/jerrod-carmichael-interview-rothaniel/)
7. ["Jerrod Carmichael doesn't have the answers," The Washington Post, May 13, 2022](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/05/13/jerrod-carmichael-rothaniel-count-of-three-interview/)
8. ["Read Jerrod Carmichael's Full Monologue From the Golden Globe Awards," TIME, January 2023](https://time.com/6246401/jerrod-carmichael-golden-globes-monologue-transcript/)
9. ["Jerrod Carmichael Talks Comedy, Pornography, and Why He Came Out on Stage," Howard Stern Show, April 27, 2022](https://www.howardstern.com/news/2022/04/27/video-jerrod-carmichael-talks-comedy-pornography-and-why-he-came-out-on-stage/)
10. ["Review: The Carmichael Show Pushes New Boundaries," TIME, May 2016](https://time.com/4319136/review-the-carmichael-show/)
11. [Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jerrod_carmichael_rothaniel)
12. [Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/jerrod-carmichael-rothaniel/critic-reviews/)
13. ["Jerrod Carmichael on coming out, depression and the pandemic," Los Angeles Times, May 13, 2022](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-05-13/jerrod-carmichael-on-the-count-of-three-rothaniel)
14. ["Why Jerrod Carmichael Turned His Life Into a Reality Show," The New Yorker interview](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/why-jerrod-carmichael-turned-his-life-into-a-reality-show)
15. ["Don't Be Gay Is the Next Chapter in the Evolution of Jerrod Carmichael," Vanity Fair](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/dont-be-gay-is-the-next-chapter-in-the-evolution-of-jerrod-carmichael)
16. [Lili Loofbourow, "'Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show' is a riveting — and risky — experiment," The Washington Post, March 29, 2024](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/2024/03/29/jerrod-carmichael-reality-show-review/)
17. [Carrie Battan, "Jerrod Carmichael Finds the Outer Limits of Confessional Comedy," The New Yorker, May 18, 2024](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/jerrod-carmichael-finds-the-outer-limits-of-confessional-comedy)
18. ["'Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show': In defense of 'therapy comedy'," Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2024](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/newsletter/2024-05-17/jerrod-carmichael-reality-show-max-screen-gab)
19. ["5 truths revealed about Jerrod Carmichael in his new reality show," Los Angeles Times, April 5, 2024](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2024-04-05/5-truths-we-learn-about-jerrod-carmichael-in-his-new-reality-show)
20. ["A flowery pianist, Eddie's brevity and other Globes moments," AP News, January 2023](https://apnews.com/article/9d40c00cda5775053e7eb3da75f521e4)
21. ["Jerrod Carmichael on Love, Sex, Honesty and His Special 'Don't Be Gay'," Amanpour and Company, PBS, 2025](https://www.pbs.org/video/jerrod-carmichael-on-love-sex-honesty-and-his-special-dont-be-gay-lf8z0a/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Theater and dance › Stand-up comedy and comedians › American stand-up comedians, contemporary › Stand-up comedians born 1980 onward › Surnames A to M*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license