If you aren’t already a major London Hughes stan, we can’t be friends…
Of course we are kidding, but seriously, this make-you-pee-in-your-pants comedian is our latest obsession and once you get to know her work, you’ll be adding her to your faves list on Instagram!
London Hughes is the first British Black woman to be nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy ‘Best Show’ Award for her show, ‘To Catch a Dick’, which was released on Netflix as her debut comedy special. Executive produced by Kevin Hart, ‘To Catch a Dick’, recounts London’s adventures in dating.
London’s first foray into television was after winning the prestigious ‘Funny Women Award’ at the London Comedy Store in 2009. She also created, wrote and starred in her own YouTube comedy series, ‘No Filter’, which featured some of London’s brightest new talent. Her dating podcast ‘London, Actually’ is available now on Spotify. She has a new book coming out in September called ‘Living My Best Life, Hun’, where she takes you on her wild and hilarious journey of self-discovery.
Since moving to the US in 2020, London has been taking Hollywood by storm, appearing on ‘The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon’, ‘Wheel Of Fortune’ celebrity edition, ABC’s ‘To Tell The Truth’ gameshow, and threw down at the ‘Netflix Is A Joke: The Festival’ in 2022.
London clearly knows what it takes to carve out a successful career in comedy on a global level, and as a celebrity judge on OnlyFans TV’s original series ‘Creative Fund: Comedy Edition‘, where 10 up-and-coming comedians competed to pursue their comedy careers and to win £100,000, the biggest ever cash prize for a UK comedy competition, she provided guidance and colorful commentary on the comedians’ performances.
Clearly she has the Midas Touch, which honestly needs to be rebranded as the “London Touch” because there is nothing London Hughes cannot conquer in the entertainment world! We had the chance to chat with her about moving to Hollywood, pushing the boundaries in comedy without being an asshole, and who she counts as her inspiration for writing her book.
But first, check out some of her work on the ‘OnlyFans Creative Fund: Comedy Edition’ series.
We are obsessed with everything you are doing! Can you tell us first about your journey to Hollywood, and how you made the leap “across the pond”?
I’ve wanted to move to America since I can remember. I’ve always been obsessed with American television and films and my dream has always been to make it in Hollywood one day.
My first leap across the pond was simply just buying a plane ticket to LA. I went to LA by myself for a week, I had no friends, no agents, no real plan other than I wanted to see for myself if I was meant to live there… And after one week I knew it was where I was supposed to live.
What have been the biggest highlights of your comedy career so far?
There’s been way too many! Becoming the first Black British woman to be nominated for the Edinburgh comedy award, Filming my Netflix special at the world famous universal studios, seeing my billboard for the first time on Sunset Blvd. Getting to host the Netflix afterparty and interview some of my heroes like Jamie Foxx and Kevin Hart. Having Kevin Hart fly me out to Las Vegas for the weekend just so we could meet!.. I honestly have to pinch myself sometimes!
Your Netflix comedy special had us in stitches! How did this opportunity come about, and what does it mean for a comedian to land a special like this?
It’s a huge deal, to this day I’m still the only British woman to have an original Netflix comedy special. Producers at Netflix saw me perform my show ‘To Catch A D*ck’ at the Edinburgh comedy festival and offered me a deal, and a lot of money to turn it into a comedy special. I would have honestly done it for free! It was a dream come true! And to have Kevin Hart offer to executive produce it was the icing on my comedy cake.
Comedy has been a white, male dominated space for a very long time, but exciting changes have been happening over the past 5-8 years. What are your thoughts on this, as a woman of color and as a Brit?
I don’t really have any other thoughts on this other than Britain needs to do better…
Who have been your comedy inspirations as you were coming up in your career, and what does representation mean to you personally?
I used to LOVE Will Smith! Even though he’s not a stand-up comedian, he rocked my world in ‘The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air’ and I remember literally wanting to be him. My other comedy inspo was Chris Rock, his ‘Bigger and Blacker’ special was one of the first stand-up specials I could quote off by heart. Will and Chris are my idols, so as you can imagine, Oscar night 2022 left me in absolute pieces!
When you are writing a set, how do you balance wanting to push the boundaries, while also being mindful of so many comedians being pulled up for being controversial or offensive in recent years?
I don’t think about being mindful, I like to push the boundaries. But I also have morals, it’s comics who don’t have morals who tell tasteless jokes simply for the sake of it who need to worry about that kind of thing.
We can’t wait to devour your new book ‘Living my Best Life, Hun’ in September. What can readers expect?
Expect the unexpected, I’ve never been this honest about anything in my life! I really went there with this book. It’s funny, sad, inspiring, savage, heartfelt, embarrassing, moving, edgy, sweet, hilarious – All the good things! It’s basically Beyonce in book form.
What inspired you to write a book?
Myself. I’ve always gone through times in my life where when things got hard I’d say to myself “this is going to make a juicy chapter in your autobiography one day”… And y’know what, it really did!
As one of the celeb judges on OFTV’s original series ‘Creative Fund: Comedy Edition’, what can viewers expect to see?
Me basically being the Black female comedy Simon Cowell and a bunch of super talented Comedy kings and Queens-in-the-making battling it out in the best way. Spoiler alert, I cry during the finale.
What advice or encouragement would you give to the young comedian/writer/artist who has no idea where to begin and wants to forge their own path?
It doesn’t matter where you begin. Just do it, don’t worry about how it’s all going to happen for you, just pick up a pen or a camera and start making your magic.
You can follow London Hughes on Instagram, check out her Netflix special ‘How To Catch A Dick‘, pre-order her book ‘Living My Best Life, Hun‘, and watch her do her best Black female comedy Simon Cowell in the OnlyFans TV original series ‘Creative Fund: Comedy Edition.’
