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Woman Crush Wednesday
Happy Wednesday… or should I say Woman Crush Wednesday! This week, we’re celebrating a real ~Superwoman~ whose about to take the late night world by storm. Give it up for the next big star on broadcast television, Lilly Singh.
WHO’S THAT GAL: Lilly Singh
WHY WE’RE CRUSHING: Very rarely do YouTubers cross into mainstream entertainment, and yet here Singh is, about to host her own talk show with NBC, A Little Late with Lilly Singh. The show is set to premiere September 16 in the 1:35 a.m. time slot, which used to be home to Carson Daly’s Last Call. Known as “IISuperwomanII” to her almost 15 million subscribers on YouTube, Singh has amassed a loyal following on the site and had an incredibly lucrative career over the past ten years, making an estimated high-seven figures annually. She will be the only female to host a late night show across the major four networks, and the first openly bisexual woman of color to do so. In a predominantly male and predominantly white space, the 30-year-old will provide a very, very much needed breath of fresh air.
Singh started her YouTube channel in 2010, in part as an outlet to deal with the depression she was struggling through at the time. While Singh’s videos have spanned a wide range of topics, they generally provide a comedic, and authentic, take on everyday life. By 2013, she hit one million subscribers and finally began gaining momentum on something she had literally thrown everything into (read: pushing off grad school, living at home with her parents, and saving money to buy professional video equipment). By 2016, being able to afford a decent video camera was way behind the YouTuber, who had just completed a 27-stop world tour, shot her own documentary based on that tour, released and recorded multiple music videos, and even starred in major Hollywood films, like Bad Moms. Still, through it all, Singh continued on as a vlogger.
So maybe you’re thinking, okay, so Singh’s a hilarious YouTuber and has dabbled in film, but is she really qualified to host a talk show? Well, reader, it just so happens that Singh has collaborated with and interviewed a ton of celebrities already, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (her childhood idol), Selena Gomez, Priyanka Chopra, and even the queen herself: Michelle Obama. So in terms of preparation, oh yeah, she’s ready. But even so, she’s got a stacked team with her at NBC, including veterans of The Late Late Show with James Corden, The Tonight Show, and Hollywood Game Night.
While Singh is about to enter into a whole new challenge, she still hasn’t abandoned her YouTube roots, quite the opposite. When she signed on with NBC, Singh made a deal to block-shoot the first season in the fall (meaning she’ll be shooting two episodes a day for three months), so that she could pursue other projects for the rest of the year, including keeping up with her channel. Clearly, this girl is the definition of a hustler. Singh said it best herself: “An Indian-Canadian woman with her own late night show? Now that is a dream come true.” Singh shot for the stars, and went beyond.
WHERE YOU’VE SEEN HER BEFORE: If you’re not one of Singh’s 14.9 million subscribers, then maybe you saw her documentary, A Trip to Unicorn Island, or even read her New York Times best-seller How to be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life. If none of these are true – though we doubt it – then you might recognize her from the 2014 Bollywood film Dr. Cabbie as Lily, the comedy Bad Moms, starring Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell, as Cathy, or even in the family-friendly animated film Ice Age: Collision Course as the voice of Misty. Most recently, Singh starred in HBO’s adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 where she played Raven, a tabloid vlogger who works with the fire department to spread propaganda about book burnings.
WHERE YOU’LL SEE HER AGAIN: Apart from the obvious – a.k.a. hosting her own NBC late night show – you’ll be seeing Singh in NBC’s upcoming comedy pilot, Bright Futures, alongside model Emily Ratajkowski and Friends Star Lisa Kudrow. Though this seems to be all that’s on the horizon for Singh as of now, we’re sure there’s much, much more to come from our new favorite late night host. Stay tuned.
