Who’s With Me?

WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY W. KAMAU BELL
RODA THEATRE

JUN 17–22, 2025
SPECIAL BENEFIT FOR BAY AREA ARTS ORGANIZATIONS

After two residencies and multiple shows at Berkeley Rep, I feel like a member of the Berkeley Rep family. And when your family needs you, you do whatever you can to help them…Once again, my family will proudly tread the boards of Berkeley Rep to support our Bay Area community and the arts.

W. Kamau Bell

Emmy and Peabody Award-winning W. Kamau Bell returns to Berkeley Rep with Who’s With Me? for a special engagement benefiting Bay Area arts organizations affected by recent NEA funding cuts. In this thoughtful yet entertaining show, Bell brings questions, insights, and his signature humor to navigate our complicated times. He’s pretty sure the only way we make it through all of this is if we face it together. So, Bell wants to know: Who’s With Me?

This special performance supports these Bay Area organizations: American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Crowded Fire Theater, Dance Brigade/Dance Mission Theater, Magic Theatre, Marin Shakespeare Company, New Conservatory Theatre Center, Oakland Children’s Fairyland, Oakland Theater Project, San Francisco Youth Theatre, Theatre Bay Area, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, and Zaccho Dance Theatre.

Production information

Runtime: 90 minutes; no intermission

Stage effects advisory: None

Content advisory: Mature content and conversation

Previous engagement: Apr 8–13, 2025

W. Kamau Bell is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning TV host, filmmaker, comedian, husband, and dad. 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. Kamau 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, Kamau 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.