Janelle James

Janelle James (born September 23, 1979) is an American comedian, actress and writer. She is best known for her role as Ava Coleman in the ABC television series Abbott Elementary, for which she won a Critics' Choice Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and two NAACP Image Awards, in addition to nominations for four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Her writing credits include The Rundown with Robin Thede and Black Monday, and she acted in the programs Crashing, Corporate and Central Park.

James was born and raised on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, where her father had a food truck and she helped sell beers on the beach to tourists from age 7. At 16, she and her mother moved to New York. She enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Technology but left after a few years. She began her career in 2009 at an open mic while living in Champaign, Illinois, and described her style as "just talking shit", covering topics such as motherhood, being a woman over 35, and dating.

She gained wider prominence as the opening act for Chris Rock's 2017 Total Blackout tour and released her debut comedy album Black and Mild that year, recorded at Acme Comedy Company in Minneapolis. She was named one of Variety's 10 Comics to Watch for 2020 and was a featured comic on Netflix's The Standups in 2021. After the success of Abbott Elementary's first season, she moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 2022.