Phoebe Robinson Is Choosing Humanity Over Hustle & Laughter Over Doom

It feels like Phoebe Robinson has been providing me, personally, with catharsis, comedy, and hope for a decade. Whether through her OG stand-up series Two Dope Queens (which she started in 2016 with fellow actress and comedian Jessica Williams), books, publishing imprint, podcasts, onscreen projects or her current “another wig, another rant” social media series where she’s yelling our feelings in a way that’s so freeing, it feels like she’s ranting directly into our respective group chats (with titles ranging from “Jeff Bezos Is A Stupid Ass Bitch” to “Women Need To Burn Everything To The Ground“), Robinson has built a career out of saying the thing out loud you were only comfortable thinking — but funnier, sharper, and more coherent than most tirades at the absurdity of our timelines could ever be.

Now, Robinson is stepping into a new role that still centers the thing she’s always been most interested in: creativity, humanity, and who gets to tell stories. As a judge for the AT&T Untold Stories program at the Tribeca Film Festival, she’s helping select the next filmmaker who will receive the largest film production prize in the world of its kind. The award goes far beyond funding. The $1.2 million prize includes comprehensive mentorship, industry support, and a guaranteed premiere at the following year’s Tribeca Festival, turning a single (live!) pitch into a fully realized feature film with a real, global platform behind it.

It’s the kind of opportunity that can quietly reshape a career overnight, and Robinson is excited to see what the process reveals about the people behind the pitches. AT&T’s Untold Stories is designed to elevate voices that might otherwise be overlooked, including emerging filmmakers with bold ideas, distinct perspectives, and the kind of storytelling instincts that don’t always fit neatly into traditional gatekeeping systems. For Robinson, that mission feels like a natural extension of the work she’s always done in comedy and media: creating space where there wasn’t much before, and insisting that humor and humanity are not separate from cultural impact.

In conversation, she moves easily between big-picture cultural critique and deeply personal creative advice, whether she’s talking about the pressures of modern productivity culture or the importance of protecting joy in the middle of building a career. In a post-girlboss, anti-AI era, Robinson wants us to make art and have a life. What a concept!

Below, Robinson talks about how she chooses which political mess to rant about, protecting comedy from manosphere bros like Joe Rogen and Theo Von, creative responsibility, and why she’s less interested in perfect execution than in ideas that keep evolving long after a viral punchline.

Refinery29: I am obsessed with your ‘Another Wig, Another Rant’ series on socials. I love it so much. It’s so cathartic to watch. How cathartic has it been to do that series?

Phoebe Robinson: It’s been so fun. It was very accidental. Andrew Cuomo did some interview — being just so sexist and idiotic — so I just ranted about him, and people were like, “oh, I could watch you yell about people.” I was like, oh, I can do that! [laughs] It’’s been so fun and just such a pleasant surprise. I’ve taken a little bit of a hiatus the past couple of weeks because I’m behind on my book, but they’re so fun, and I really only want to do them if I’m really genuinely feeling passionate about something. I don’t want to just yell for the sake of yelling, because there’s enough of that going on, and so I always want to try to have a kernel of something of value in what I’m saying. I get to pop on my little wig, and I just go. I sit and think for like 10 minutes, and I’m like, okay, let’s go. I don’t write them. I just really want to be off the top of my head. In the beginning, I had to do a couple takes [but now] I usually just do one and done.

This is why you’re you, because I feel like there’s no way that I could be that passionate, and then that funny and coherent at the same time. How do you decide what you’re going to rant about? Because I feel like on any given day on the internet, there are at least seven things that make me want to scream into the void.

PR: I usually decide based on whether it elicits a strong reaction in me. That’s the first step. Then sometimes there are things where people are talking about Kristi Noem and her husband, and I was thinking, what’s going on with them feels very nuanced in a way that I don’t think I could have tackled in a rant. I don’t want to be like, ‘Huh, he got busted for cross-dressing,’ or whatever you want to call it. That is neither here nor there. I don’t want to make jokes about that. Plenty of people do that, and that is how they express themselves, that’s how they make money on the side, blah blah blah. To me, that was not really the issue I had with them.

I don’t want to just yell for the sake of yelling, because there’s enough of that going on, and so I always want to try to have a kernel of something of value in what I’m saying. I get to pop on my little wig, and I just go.
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So sometimes I’ll ask myself, ‘Do I have the right angle on it?’ Sometimes I’m just like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I know enough about this thing,’ so I won’t speak on it. I wish more people would do that gut check and ask themselves, ‘Am I knowledgeable about this?’ Usually, if I’m thinking about something or seeing something and a couple of funny punchlines come to mind right away, I’ll follow that and see if it leads to anything. Then I go from there. I try to have a mix of pop culture stuff and political stuff. I don’t know—people say, ‘Oh, I only get my news from you,’ and I’m like, ‘Well, you should get other sources as well, just to be clear.

I can imagine that, with some of the topics that you tackle, especially politically, that your DMs must be full of some wild reactions.

PR: This was funny—I was talking to someone else about this. Strangely enough, of all the videos I’ve done, the one that got the most intense reaction in the comments and DMs was me making fun of Dave Matthews scatting. The way these white people were getting mad! I was like, ‘Honey, if he saw this video, he would think it’s funny.’ Also, he’s very rich—he doesn’t care. He also knows it was complete bullshit to be doing air guitar while he’s already on a motherfucking guitar. This is hilarious [laughs]. I love him. I’ve seen him live. But these white people were like, ‘How dare you?'” I was like oh my god, this is scarier than the Beyhive. Are you guys okay?

I did one on Dave Chappelle and one about the Kevin Hart roast, and I always will pause just a little bit if I’m doing something about stand-up comedy, because it is so male dominated. And I’m always like, ‘oh, am I going to get a lot of vitriol back? I surprisingly haven’t. People have been particularly measured, even if they don’t agree with me, like they’re not flying off the handle, which is nice. I feel like I’ve done a good job off cultivating a pretty solid audience around what I do, so you sort of get it or you don’t. But yeah, some white people also got mad when I said Harry Styles was a mediocre dancer. I was like, is this breaking news?

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That’s just a fact. Again, I think Harry Styles would agree with you. So, this is such a cliche now but I want to ask you about using comedy in these divisive times to help us move through them. I just want to know how you feel like comedy is a necessary tool in times like this, when our timelines are so horrifying.

PR: The powers that be want chaos. They want the doom and gloom. They want the doomscroll. They want this level of unease, this level of uncertainty, this feeling that it’s never going to feel good and safe again, because then they can do what they want. So I really do think that comedy is important, which is why I feel very passionate and protective about comedy, especially stand-up comedy. With people like Theo Von, Andrew Schulz, and Joe Rogan, who helped usher in this era we’re living in and now want to backtrack so they can course-correct and make money—the grift is always changing, so they’re always pivoting.

Comedy is important, which is why I feel very passionate and protective about [it], especially stand-up comedy. With people like Theo Von, Andrew Schulz, and Joe Rogan, who helped usher in this era we’re living in.
phoebe robinson

For me, comedy does come with a responsibility. I know a lot of comedians want to shy away from that and say, ‘Oh, I’m just telling jokes. I’m not that smart,’ and so on. But stand-up comedy, at least the way a lot of people do it, is predicated on specific word choice to elicit a response. You actually do pay attention to every single word you’re choosing because you’re trying to get the most laughs you can in an hour. So I think we have to be honest about the fact that if you’re going to get rich, successful, and famous based on the words you say, then people also have a right to look at those words under a microscope and ask, ‘Hey, what exactly are you saying here? How is this beneficial? Or is this pushing forward hate speech or something else?’

I think comedy is vitally important right now. Not only comedy, but the arts in general. Art shifts culture. It reflects culture back to us. Comedy is important because we need to laugh. We need to feel hope. We need to feel that there’s going to be some way out of this. If we’re serious all the time, or if we’re just recklessly saying things, I think it’s only going to inflict more damage.

It’s such an interesting time. We’re also in the time of those men saying, “I can’t say anything, anymore” and then they proceed to say the wildest stuff and continue to be able to say it. It’s like, wait, you can say whatever you want, clearly.

PR: I know. All these dudes act like they can be canceled, but you’re never really canceled. Louis C.K. has never been out of work for one goddamn minute. He just went from being universally beloved to not being universally beloved.

A lot of these people can’t handle having their egos shattered in that way. But he’s fine. He’s winning awards, putting out Netflix specials, and selling out MSG. He is not hurting for anything.

Totally. I want to talk about your comedy special, I Don’t Wanna Work Anymore — neither do I [laughs] — and railing against ambition and girl boss culture. How do you feel about it now? Anti-ambition is kind of a millennial rite of passage now.

PR: It’s tough because I think we’re in an age where technology has changed so much of everything. It also feels to me like we’re expected to work more and get less in return, so I’m always telling people, ‘Listen, pursue your passions. Pursue your dreams. Honor those things. The nine-year-old version of you would be so proud to see you going after what you’re going after at 35, 40, or 27.’ But also make sure you have room to have a life. Have passions. My friendships and family relationships mean so much to me. They have such a high importance in my life.

Whether it’s music, writing, interviews, or whatever you do, the process is the good part.
phoebe robinson on ai

Especially in this age of AI and other things that are encouraging people to remove their humanity and become pods for productivity, I think it’s important to counteract that with things that aren’t pushing that narrative. I find it so disheartening and such a bummer. I remember seeing an interview with an executive who had some AI music company. He said, ‘Nobody enjoys learning how to play an instrument. That’s not fun. You just want it done.’ And I thought, ‘But that’s the whole fun of it.’ Whether it’s music, writing, interviews, or whatever you do, the process is the good part. That’s where so much of the value comes from.

Pulling your hair out at four in the morning hunched over a laptop, that’s the whole thing!

PR: Yes, but when you’re dealing with a person like this guy, who doesn’t have talent, he can’t understand it because he’s not good at anything other than pillaging things and stripping away humanity. That’s what you’re left with.

So I really think that if you want to build your household and focus on your grind, go ahead and do that. But understand that the things that are going to make you the happiest are everything outside of that. Don’t lose sight of that.

Well, speaking of the arts, and fostering creativity, let’s talk about the AT&T Untold Stories pitch event at Tribeca. Why did you want to be a part of it?

PR: Well, I’ve always been a film nerd. I’ve always loved the Tribeca Festival. Even when I was growing up in Ohio, I was like, ‘One day I’m going to go to Tribeca.’ I was also thinking, ‘I’m going to meet Robert De Niro,’ and it’s like, girl, calm down. As someone who came up having to create their own opportunities—whether through a podcast, doing live shows, or snowballing that into other projects—I really connect with that spirit. Especially when Jessica [Williams] and I started Two Dope Queens back in 2016, one of the main reasons we did it was because we weren’t seeing a lot of women, people of color, or people from the queer community getting late-night sets on TV. We wanted to create a space for that.

So something like Untold Stories is incredibly exciting to me. These are people who might otherwise be overlooked or told that their work isn’t great or isn’t worth being made into a film. Being able to highlight those stories and help these filmmakers get to the next level of their careers is so exciting. Reading the scripts, I was just thinking, ‘I’m proud of all of you, and I don’t even know you yet.’

Even just reading the little synopses, I was like, ‘Yes! these need to be made.’ These filmmakers are going to be pitching live at Tribeca. What makes a good pitch? And you have so much live experience. What advice would you have?

PR: What I would say is that you’re operating from a place of expertise, because no one knows this story better than you. You’re the expert here. We’re all accomplished in our own ways, but when it comes to this story, you’re the number one authority. If you can figure out a way to tell it in an engaging way while showing off your personality and demonstrating that you can pull this off, that’s huge. At the end of this, someone is going to get $1.2 million. That’s serious money. We want to feel confident saying, ‘Okay, you’re the winner,’ and know that you’re going to go make the best indie film you can.

Being able to highlight those stories and help these filmmakers get to the next level of their careers is so exciting. Reading the scripts, I was just thinking, ‘I’m proud of all of you, and I don’t even know you yet.’
phoebe robinson

So know your story inside and out, but also have fun. It’s easy to get in your head and think, ‘I’ve got 10 minutes to sell this thing.’ Instead, go back to the excitement you felt when the idea first hit you—when you were scrambling to find a notepad and write everything down. That’s the energy you should bring into the room, because it gets us excited too. We already love the scripts. But if we fall in love with you and your vision as well, then it’s undeniable.

How could this change these filmmakers’ lives? You have gone through the pitch process in Hollywood so can you give some perspective as to what an opportunity like this really means? Because I think from the outside people might not get it.

PR: You have the obvious outcome, which is that if you win, you get to go make your movie and spend the year doing that. But you also never know who you’re going to meet along the way. There have been so many times when something didn’t pan out for me, and then later someone reached out and said, ‘Hey, I was thinking of you for this. Are you available?’ Opportunities can come from a pitch, a conversation, or even just having lunch with someone.

I always tell people to be the best and most positive version of themselves, because that opens so many doors. I know it’s hard as a creative—you feel the pressure of a huge opportunity—but you don’t want to tighten up in that moment. Remember, this is not going to be your only opportunity. There will be others. Prepare as much as you can, but take some of the pressure off so you can actually enjoy the experience. When you’re genuinely enjoying yourself, people pick up on it, even if they can’t quite explain why. That’s often what makes them remember you.