Actress-comedian and podcaster Ego Nwodim believes she cares perhaps too much about food.
That’s what the Saturday Night Live star admits over Zoom, having just returned to New York City after handling 2024 Paris Olympics coverage duties. While in the City of Love, Nwodim fell for pizza eatery Oobatz—after mistakenly visiting a Parisian tourist trap for a meal the year before. But unlike that less-than-savory dining experience, at Oobatz, Nwodim dug into the best pizza she’s ever had—and she confesses this even though she has previously visited Italy.
It’s been minutes into our conversation, and Nwodim reflects on Oobatz with so much fondness that I almost book a reservation before reminding myself that it would require a thousand-dollar round-trip flight. She raves over the restaurant’s owner and head chef, Dan Pearson. Shares that going to the establishment wasn’t originally in her game plan. Recounts going down a YouTube rabbit hole to discover Oobatz as Paris’ best kept secret. But digging into the pizza pie made it worth Nwodim’s international trek. “I made it a point to have this meal and that was one of the highlights of my trip,” she says.
It wouldn’t be the first time grabbing a bite would be life-changing for Nwodim. While at a Brooklyn tavern, the Baltimore native pored over the script of Mr. Throwback, which premiered its first season on Peacock in August. For the mockumentary sitcom, starring actor-comedian Adam Pally and NBA phenom Stephen Curry in his first scripted television role, the supporting character of Kimberly Gregg would be destined for Nwodim.
Nwodim initially thought she would just give the script a generous once-over—but that was before she found herself laughing out loud as Kimberly fearlessly protects one of the most talented ballers in the league. Although Kimberly’s hilarious, her no-nonsense attitude threatens Danny Grossman (Pally), who seeks to make amends with Curry for his personal gain.
DRESS Aknvas, SHOES Rene Caovilla
hile I sit here and it’ll probably take me a while to read it— because there’s something studious about reading scripts at times,” Nwodim says. “But every once in a while you get a script that feels so exciting and is such a page-turner. That’s what Mr. Throwback was for me.”
She continues, “I read it so fast, I was like, I didn’t even know I could read that fast. I was laughing out loud at the bar by myself, looking like a maniac, and texted my manager, ‘I want to be a part of this. This is so funny. It’s so well written. They sound like real people and they’re all funny and I can see all of them.’”
Nwodim leapt into Kimberly’s world, her natural humor tying into the character’s dauntless approach and readiness to question Danny’s motives. Even when filming had some overlap with the end of season 49 of SNL, she was eager to be involved in the project.
“It meant being on quite a few planes, jumping from one job to another... I enjoy being employed—I enjoy being overly employed. I’m grateful,” Nwodim says. “It was so cool to read it on the page alone at a bar in Brooklyn, then join this team that operates like such a well-oiled machine.”
But the cast also had some downtime before Curry officially joined the production in the final week, having already memorized his lines, living up to his legacy as a GOAT. When Nwodim inquired about how the Golden State Warriors point guard was able to pull off the role like an acting veteran, he credited his three oldest children.
JACKET Acaria Studio, SKIRT Ulla Johnson, SHOES Nomasei,
EARRINGS Lisalina Design
“He was running lines with his kids and it worked and I kept saying, ‘The kids need to open up an acting studio.’ They did their thing,” Nwodim says. “So I’m glad he took advantage of that because I think it paid off. He did a great job and showed up so brilliantly in the series.”
With Kimberly based on Curry’s real-life SC30 COO Tiffany Williams, the ladies would have a quick by chance meeting during a conference in Ojai, after Nwodim filmed most of her Mr. Throwback scenes.
“So I met her, and I was like, ‘Am I you?’ And she was like, ‘Yes,’ and then we hugged,” Nwodim says. “I think we just are kindred spirits and it worked out in that way, but so much of who Kimberly is, and thus Tiffany is, resonates with me. So it was really cool to then step into that role and portray her.”
Even as Nwodim’s professional life has gotten sweeter—she also appeared in romantic comedy Players earlier this year— it’s no secret that Black women have been particularly appropriated and caricatured in comedy throughout history. What was once early 19th century minstrelsy has evolved into viral skits of women from underrepresented communities being mocked and made into the butt of jokes. Yet Nwodim, who thinks of imitation as the best form of flattery, isn’t looking for appropriation to entertain her nor make her upset.
DRESS David Koma, EARRINGS Ben-Amun
DRESS Mozhdeh Matin, SHOES Bimba Y Lola, EARRINGS & BRACELET Ben-Amun
“I know for me, as a Black woman, when you witness appropriation, it’s hard to see sometimes because you kind of just feel used. It’s like, ‘We’ll use you for what we want and the other parts we will demonize or villainize,’” she says.
“That feels unfortunate because I think it’s been said that we Black women inspire, right? I feel like our style is cool. I feel like our essence is cool,” she says. “And so I understand the desire to emulate some of that, but you want credit where credit is due. And you want to be accepted and celebrated as all that you are as a whole—not have people pick and choose which parts of you they want to put in their back pocket.”
However, Nwodim empathizes with fellow modern comics, who course through the challenges of being amusing to audiences while being sensitive to their tastes. As a Black woman of Nigerian heritage, Nwodim has learned to adapt while maintaining the humor that’s shaped her.
“It is an interesting time in comedy for people who do feel like they want to get really close to that line and they might say some things that are offensive to people. But I think that’s every comedian’s own journey to determine how they’re going to conduct themselves given the climate we’re in,” says Nwodim. “The kind of comedy I do, I don’t think really falls into that realm in a way that I would feel off put or inconvenienced in terms of the kind of comedy I want to do,” she adds.
DRESS David Koma, EARRINGS Ben-Amun
Being the seventh Black female repertory SNL player, Nwodim chooses to focus on the multidimensionality of Black womanhood in her craft. In walking the path paved by former SNL cast members Ellen Cleghorne, Maya Rudolph, and Leslie Jones, Nwodim wants to extend the presence of Black women in sketch comedy.
“I really, really, supremely can’t stress this enough: I’m grateful for the Black women who came before me on this show,” Nwodim says. “I know that when I took this job, I understood I was the seventh Black woman ever to be on the cast and it was really important to me to represent, and to hopefully, make it easier for the next Black woman who would join the cast after me.”
In preparation for the fiftieth season of SNL, Nwodim has accomplished another side quest: her interview-style podcast Thanks Dad. With planned guests including Pally and SNL costar Kenan Thompson, she’ll get their takes on fatherhood while salving the void of growing up without a present father.
“I think relationships with your parents can be such a complicated thing and I just want to have those conversations, really,” Nwodim says. “It’s really important to me in anything that I do that I get back to the humanity of it. So there’s got to be a purpose in everything that I do. I try not to do anything just for the sake of doing it or for attention.”
Now that she’s set a table of her own, allow Ego Nwodim to reintroduce herself. ❤
DRESS CFCL, SHOES Bimba Y Lola, EARRINGS Senia, NECKLACE Ben-Amun
STORY CREDITS
PHOTOGRAPHY Oriana Layendecker, STYLIST Kingsley Osuji, SET DESIGNER Colin Lytton, HAIR Takisha Sturdivant-Drew, MAKEUP Billie Gene, MANICURIST Miki Higuchi, PRODUCER Jessica Hodgson,
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