Meet an Anthem Judge: Wyatt Cenac
Wyatt Cenac is an award-winning Comedian, Actor, Producer & Writer. He’s also a new judge for The Anthem Awards, and will be reviewing this year’s purpose & mission-driven entries. Learn more about Wyatt’s work below.
Wyatt Cenac is an Emmy Award-winning comedian, actor, producer, and writer known for the HBO late-night comedy docuseries Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas. Additional credits include the Emmy nominated web series aka Wyatt Cenac, FOX’s King of the Hill, People of the Earth, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He’s made four comedy albums: Wyatt Cenac: Comedy Person, the Grammy nominated Brooklyn, Furry Dumb Fighter, and One Angry Night in November, and hosted the televised stand-up variety series Night Train with Wyatt Cenac. He started his career in animation as a writer for Mike Judge’s King of the Hill, and has served as a consultant for South Park. Every now and again he pops up in a film, most notably Barry Jenkins’ Medicine for Melancholy.
What expertise are you bringing as a judge for The Anthem Awards?
A lot of the work I’ve done through television and in stand up has used comedy as a way to point out social and political issues that people are working on and discussing. Some of that comes from a legacy of comedians, who used satire as a way to critique the absurdity of the problems of their day. And some of that comes from the beliefs of television creators, like Fred Rogers, who believed that television had the power to do more than simply entertain. It could inform and empower viewers in a myriad of ways.
What are you looking for in Anthem Awards entries?
Thoughtful ideas and approaches that mean something to the entrants.
What does it take for a project or campaign to cause real-world change?
I honestly don’t know. At the end of the day, I don’t know if a project can cause change. It can advocate for change. But real change is from the people who are on the ground doing the often thankless work day in and day out. If a project can spotlight or amplify those voices, then perhaps it’s a bit of wind in the sails of the real people who are making change.
Don’t miss your chance to get your work in front of Wyatt – enter the 2nd Annual Anthem Awards by our Early Entry Deadline July 29 here.
