W. Kamau Bell to Return to Berkeley Rep With WHO'S WITH ME?

Emmy and Peabody Award-winning TV host, comedian, filmmaker, and New York Times bestselling author W. Kamau Bell returns to Berkeley Repertory Theatre this June for a special limited engagement of Who’s With Me?, benefiting Bay Area theatres affected by recent National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant terminations. Who’s with Me? will perform at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre from Tuesday, June 17, through Sunday, June 22, 2025. 

Benefiting Bay Area theatres include American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Crowded Fire Theater, Magic Theatre, Marin Shakespeare Company, New Conservatory Theatre Center, Oakland Children’s Fairyland, Oakland Theater Project, San Francisco Youth Theatre, Theatre Bay Area, and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, as well as Zaccho Dance Theatre and Dance Brigade/Dance Mission Theater, two companies with whom Kamau and Melissa Bell have long relationships.
 
“After two residencies and multiple shows at Berkeley Rep, I feel like a member of the Berkeley Rep family,” said Bell. “And when your family needs you, you do whatever you can to help them. As soon as I heard that the National Endowment for the Arts—under President Trump’s direction—was pulling funding from theatres and other arts organizations, I reached out to Berkeley Rep Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer and offered to help if they needed it! Once again, my family will proudly tread the boards of Berkeley Rep to support our Bay Area community and the arts.”
 
Bell returns to Berkeley Rep following a sold-out, seven-show engagement of Who’s With Me? in April 2025. In 2024, Bell performed two sold-out developmental residencies, W. Kamau Bell Gets His Act Together, at Berkeley Rep’s Bakery Studio at Berkeley Rep School of Theatre.

Bell is an Emmy & Peabody Award-winning TV host, filmmaker, comedian, husband, and dad. He is on the road for his new comedy tour, “Who’s With Me?”  Tickets are available at www.kamaubell.com. Kamau is the reigning champion of Celebrity Jeopardy, where he played for DonorsChoose. He also wrote a chapter in the newly released Michael Lewis book, Who Is Government? - The Untold Story of Public Service, which is a New York Times bestseller. Kamau is also the host of the ACLU’s official podcast, At Liberty. For seven seasons, he hosted and executive-produced the five-time Emmy Award-winning CNN Original Series United Shades of America. In 2023, he won an Emmy for his HBO documentary 1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed. He also received a Peabody Award for his 2022 Showtime docu-series, We Need to Talk About Cosby. Bell co-authored the New York Times bestseller Do the Work: An Antiracist Activity Book and authored The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6' 4", African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama’s Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian. His latest writing project is the Substack newsletter, Who's With Me? His comedy special, Private School Negro, is available on Netflix.

Bell serves on the board of directors for DonorsChoose, a nonprofit that assists teachers in raising money for classroom projects, and Live Free, a nonprofit committed to ending gun violence, mass incarceration, and mass criminalization. He is also the ACLU’s Celebrity Ambassador for Racial Justice. In 2023, Bell and his wife, Melissa Hudson Bell, co-founded Who Knows Best Productions, a media production company based in Oakland, CA. He cares deeply and sleeps little.