Michelle Buteau

Michelle Buteau is an American comedian, actor, writer, and television host whose work draws on her family, marriage, motherhood, and life in New York City. Born in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, she is the daughter of a Haitian father and Jamaican mother. Buteau began performing comedy in 2001, after working in television news and reassessing her life following the September 11, 2001, attacks. Her early stand-up career led to appearances on comedy programs and the late-night circuit, while her conversational, emphatic delivery made personal anecdotes central to her act. She has also performed widely at clubs, theaters, and festivals.

In 2020, Buteau released Welcome to Buteaupia, her first hour-long Netflix stand-up special. Recorded at the Ice Palace on Fire Island, it features material about her marriage to Dutch photographer Gijs van der Most, fertility treatment, and raising their twins. The special won the Critics Choice Television Award for Best Comedy Special in 2021. Her memoir, Survival of the Thickest, published in 2020, collects essays concerning body image, dating, family, and becoming a parent. Buteau and van der Most married in 2010; their twins, Hazel and Otis, were born via surrogate in 2019. It recurs in her stand-up and screen work.

Buteau became especially recognizable as the host of Netflix's reality competition series The Circle, which premiered in the United States in 2020. From a separate apartment, she introduces contestants who communicate through a social-media-style platform and compete for popularity; Buteau supplies narration, interviews, and comic commentary. She also joined the ensemble of the 2019 romantic comedy Always Be My Maybe and played Veronica in BET+'s First Wives Club, a series inspired by the 1996 film. Her television acting credits also include Russian Doll and Tales of the City. She appeared in the Jennifer Lopez comedy Second Act and 2024's Babes as Dawn, too.

Buteau turned her essay collection into the Netflix comedy series Survival of the Thickest, which debuted in 2023. She created the show with Danielle Sanchez-Witzel and stars as Mavis Beaumont, a stylist rebuilding her life after a breakup. The series follows Mavis through work, friendship, dating, and the practical problem of finding an affordable apartment in New York. Its second season was ordered by Netflix. In 2024, Buteau co-starred as Dawn in Babes, a comedy directed by Pamela Adlon about longtime friends confronting pregnancy and changing adulthood. She has also appeared as guest judge on Netflix's baking competition Nailed It!