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Woke (2020 TV series)

Woke is an American live-action/animation hybrid comedy series that premiered on Hulu on September 9, 2020 and ran for two seasons of eight episodes each before cancellation in June 2022. It follows Keef Knight, a Black cartoonist in San Francisco played by Lamorne Morris, who begins hearing inanimate objects speak to him after a traumatic police encounter, forcing him to confront the racism he had previously avoided addressing in his art. The series is inspired by the life and work of the real cartoonist Keith Knight, who co-created it with screenwriter Marshall Todd.1 • 2 • 3

Key factDetail
Network and runHulu (US); season 1 premiered September 9, 2020, season 2 premiered April 8, 2022; 16 episodes of about 30 minutes1
FormatLive-action/animation hybrid comedy; animated sequences give voice to talking objects2 • 4
BasisInspired by the life and work of award-winning cartoonist Keith Knight, co-creator and executive producer2 • 5
Main castLamorne Morris (Keef Knight), Blake Anderson (Gunther), T. Murph (Clovis), Sasheer Zamata (Ayana), Aimee Garcia (Laura), J.B. Smoove (Marker)6
ProductionCo-production of Sony Pictures Television and ABC Signature; developed by Marshall Todd and Keith Knight5
ReceptionSeason 1 scored 74% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (42 reviews); the series averaged 74% from critics and 83% from audiences7
StatusCancelled by Hulu after two seasons, reported June 24, 20222

Spoilers

Premise

Keef Knight is an African-American syndicated cartoonist living in San Francisco, on the verge of mainstream success with his lighthearted comic "Toast & Butter." While hanging posters on the street he is tackled by police who say he "fits the description," an experience of racial profiling that leaves him with trauma manifesting in an unexpected way: ordinary inanimate objects begin talking to him, voiced in part by Cedric the Entertainer. These objects, along with his human friends, push him to recognize the daily microaggressions and injustices he has been turning a blind eye to, and he must navigate his new awareness without destroying the career and relationships he has built.4 • 8 • 6

The title works on two levels. In common usage "woke" often denotes performative social justice; in the series it refers literally to the main character's awakening after the police encounter.8

Seasons

Season one (2020). The eight-episode first season, all released September 9, 2020, establishes Keef's police encounter and his reluctant entry into activism. The Los Angeles Times described it as a mix of romance, cohabitation comedy, and social satire on identity, authenticity, justice, performative rage, and exhaustion, noting that it "does sometimes go just where you might expect, but more often does not." Production wrapped at the end of February 2020, just before COVID-19 pandemic disruptions.1 • 3

Season two (2022). The second season, released April 8, 2022, moves Keef from private awakening to public figure: he becomes a popular activist facing a world where "woke" has become big business. A storyline has him mobilize a social media outcry against an internet provider's advertisement using Martin Luther King Jr., leading to a $250,000 partnership with the company's venture-capitalist founder Laura (Aimee Garcia) and a free-sneaker initiative for San Francisco's unhoused population that backfires. Knight framed the season's theme as "post-George Floyd... What happens when 'woke' becomes a brand?" The season's humor targets performative activism and social media fame.1 • 5 • 12

Origin and development

Cartoonist Keith Knight, known for the comic strips "The K Chronicles" and "The Knight Life," had drawn about police brutality for decades and received an NAACP History Maker award in 2015 for his cartoon slideshow about race in America, "They Shoot Black People, Don't They?"9 • 10 The pilot's central incident, in which Keef is mistaken for a suspect and knocked to the ground by gun-wielding police, happened to Knight himself about twenty years before the series; he said the point of the scene is its longevity rather than its timeliness, because "racism is evergreen in this country; police brutality is evergreen."9

Knight worked for roughly six or seven years to develop his cartoons as a television series, beginning interviews around 2016, and found his deal only after moving from Los Angeles to the North Carolina Triangle area in 2015. Co-creator Marshall Todd, a screenwriter on "Barbershop," submitted a script he had written as personal therapy and never expected to produce; Knight read it and decided Todd was the collaborator he wanted.9 • 11 Knight remained closely involved in production, contributing art for the sets and consulting on costumes and locations.9

Production and setting

Although set in San Francisco, neither season was filmed there. Season one was shot in Vancouver and wrapped in February 2020 just before the pandemic; season two filmed in Atlanta and paused production after several COVID scares, and the season includes a few pandemic jokes. San Francisco appears through stock shots and Bay Area references, and the show satirizes local liberal stereotypes, including a running gag when Ayana commits the local faux pas of saying "The BART."3 • 12

Reception and cancellation

Season one received a 74% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critical consensus calling it "a messy conversation worth watching" carried by a solid ensemble and surreal silliness, while noting the season "doesn't quite know what it wants to say about racism in America." The RogerEbert.com review was more negative, finding the eight-episode season's discussions inert and short on laughs. Tom's Guide judged that the show found its rhythm in season two, which earned a 93% audience rating on the site's account, with surprising twists and character growth.7 • 13 • 4

Hulu canceled the series after two seasons, a decision reported on June 24, 2022 by Deadline and confirmed by TVLine. The Los Angeles Times had observed that the season one ending could easily serve as a series ending, and the show concluded with 16 episodes.2 • 3 • 1

References

  1. Woke (a Titles & Air Dates Guide), epguides.com
  2. Andy Swift, "'Woke' Cancelled: No Season 3 For Hulu Comedy," TVLine, June 24, 2022
  3. Robert Lloyd, "In Hulu's new TV show, a Black cartoonist gets 'Woke.' But don't expect a sermon," Los Angeles Times, September 9, 2020
  4. "One of Hulu's best original series only lasted two seasons," Tom's Guide
  5. Woke, Hulu Press
  6. Woke - Full Cast & Crew, TV Guide
  7. Woke, Rotten Tomatoes
  8. Karama Horne, "Hulu's Woke cast talks trauma, truth, and, yes, toast that talks back," SYFY WIRE, September 8, 2020
  9. Zack Smith, "Carrboro Cartoonist Keith Knight Leaps from Comic Strip to Screen with New Hulu Series 'Woke'," Indy Week, September 2, 2020
  10. Keith Knight, UNC School of the Arts / Kenan Institute for the Arts
  11. Donnell Alexander, "Keith Knight is all over the place," Substack
  12. Dan Gentile, "'When woke becomes a brand': Hulu comedy roasts liberal San Francisco stereotypes," SFGATE, April 9, 2022
  13. "Don't Bother Getting Up for Hulu's Woke," RogerEbert.com

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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Woke (2020 TV series)

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